


Start Of Hell

by PandaTabby



Series: A Living Nightmare [1]
Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game), Delitoonz - Fandom, Septiplier - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Blood and Violence, Deliritoonz - Freeform, Fluff, M/M, Septiplier - Freeform, because there needs to be more of that, dramatic scenes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-03 09:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8706295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandaTabby/pseuds/PandaTabby
Summary: Avery Mellon is a 14 ½ year old girl who is a huge fan of the three YouTubers Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and H2O Delirious, and her heart’s deepest desired wish is to get the chance to meet them all in person. Her dream comes true, but not in the way that she expected, or wanted. Instead of a dream, it’s more of a living nightmare.Map: Autohaven Wrecker'sKiller: The Wraith





	1. The Players

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is probably a story for a fandom you weren't expecting me to write for! Well, uh, it isn't exactly for the actual game. It is, but it isn't.
> 
> As you could probably tell by the summary, the YouTubers Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and H2ODelirious are in here! This story also implies Septiplier, and though I regret to say it, H2Ovanoss is not a thing here, though I find it really cute and no matter how many times I tried to find a way to put it in here, I just couldn't figure it out. UGH!
> 
> Also, this story was proof-read by TheAwesomeMatag, so all the credit doesn't go just to me.
> 
> This story is split into 5 parts, and each part will be started and finished within one month, so it will take 5 months to complete. Each part has a different number of chapters, so the publishing schedule will randomize each month. I'll tell you guys what it will be at the start of each new part.
> 
> WARNINGS!: strong language, blood and violence, non-proper game play, and other made-up nonsense. (future warnings added)

**Chapter 1: The Players**

 

She was seen as a normal person in public, but when you looked at Avery Mellon’s  **_(Pronounced like saying mel-lawn)_ ** private, at home life, you could feel bad for her. Avery’s little brother, Danny, had recently died in a car accident and since then, her parents haven’t been the same. Her father, Frank, had become a drunk, and her mother, Mary, was hardly ever home. When Avery’s mother  _ was  _ home, she was either asleep or looking for something to distract herself with.

 

Quite honestly, though, Avery didn’t mind as much as most other kids would. She got what she wanted most of the time, and didn’t ever blame her parents for the depressing changes. Avery Mellon was 14 ½ and ever since her seven year old brother had died in that car accident with her father’s sister (more reason to become a drunk for him), she spent most of her time inside her bedroom, usually on her new laptop. Sometimes all day even. It wasn’t that difficult with it only being the middle of June. What Avery did in the time on her computer, was play video games or watch other people play them on YouTube.

 

The game that Avery played the most was called  _ Dead By Daylight,  _ and she always played at least one round every day. Other than that, Avery didn’t play any other horror games at all, but she did  _ watch  _ three other people play them quite often on YouTube. Just three subscriptions was all there was on her account, and she suspected that they were all well known. Although two of them were more than one.

 

Seemingly famous for claiming the title of “The King of Five Nights at Freddy’s” was none other than Markiplier. The almost twenty-seven year old man with dark hair dyed partly red had made a name for himself with that game, and the world seemed to have just gone with it. Avery never missed a new video on his channel, no matter what it was for.

 

And then there was the Ireland dwelling, green haired, Irish Jacksepticeye, whom practically everyone shipped with Mark. Avery was what most fan-girls would probably call “rare”, as she didn’t actually ship Septiplier. Not in  _ that  _ way at least. Avery saw Jack and Mark as really cute friends and all, but she couldn’t really stand the thought of yaoi, or gay shipping. Though she wasn’t really sure why.

 

And finally, there was the partly psychotic one, H2ODelirious. Avery didn’t actually think that he was literally crazy, despite the fact that he said himself that he was psychopathic on his twitter account. Avery liked to believe that H2ODelirious was just crazy when he was playing games, like he was “game crazy” or something like that. Of her three subscriptions, H2ODelirious had played  _ Dead By Daylight  _ the most, and was also the reason she was into it. Now Avery believed she would give almost anything to get the chance to play a game with him, Mark, or Jack.

 

It was obvious that Avery clearly loved to watch these three YouTubers, because there were several drawings and other pictures of Mark’s pink mustache and Septic Sam plastered on every wall in her room, and a plastic mask that matched H2ODelirious’ sitting on the corner of her bed along with a shirt for him at the moment. Even if Avery got that one-in-a-trillion chance to play something with  _ any  _ of them, it most likely wouldn’t be anything too violent, considering that she was only 14 ½, even though she didn’t look it.

 

Avery had shoulder length, wavy orange hair and bright blue eyes. Her skin had a slight tannish tone to it, and she was nearly 5’3’’. Avery’s body was also more matured than most other 14 year olds.

 

But there was also the fact that she started puberty earlier than most kids did.

* * *

Under the darkened sky of L.A., one of Avery’s favorite three YouTubers was just getting himself ready to head into bed. Mark Edward Fischbach was just brushing his teeth when his dog, Chica, came padding in. She sat at his feet and looked up at her owner with expectant eyes. Mark looked back down at her for a moment before finishing his current task. Once done, he bent down and scratched her behind the ears, receiving a few face-licks in turn.

 

Mark smiled at his dog and then stood up again to leave his bathroom, turning off the light behind him as Chica followed behind. Before Mark got to his bedroom, Chica had trotted ahead of him and jumped on his bed, then lay down. She looked back at Mark with an innocent expression. Mark looked back at her.

 

“Ready before me, are you?” Mark asked her.

 

Chica lowered her head a little and wagged her tail, as if hearing the slightest noise from Mark made her happy. Mark gave a small chuckle before climbing into bed next to his dog.

* * *

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean, Sean William McLoughlin was still awake in the country of Ireland. Sean, or as everyone called him, Jack, was now setting up his computer in front of his table where he had some extra room for the video he was about to record. As crazy as he might not seem, Jack still did some pretty weird things, like he was now.

 

Jack started the recording session, which gave him three. . . two. . . one. . .

 

Jack slapped the air before saying, “Top o’ the mornin’ to ya, laddies! My name is Jacksepticeye and today I will be doing the helium balloon challenge.” Jack finished his intro before pulling a few helium balloons onto the screen.

 

“You’re probably wondering why I’m doing this, but actually Mark dared me ta do it,” Jack explained. “Fookin’ bastard,” he added quietly, half to himself. “Okay, so Mark, Bob, Wade, and I were caught up in a crazy game of Truth-or-Dare during Prop Hunt, and despite myself, I chose dare, so Mark told me ta do this, and now I’m doing it. I hope you’re happy Mark!” Jack shouted the last sentence at the camera.

 

He took one of the balloons from off his table and looked determined, but nervously into the camera.

 

“Here I go,” he said, putting his mouth over the opening of one of the balloons. “This feels weird,” he said in his still normal voice before continuing. “I just know that I’m going ta sound really weird because of my accent.” He said a moment later, his voice having raised a pitch.

 

After a few more inhales, Jack’s voice had turned extra high-pitched and squeaky, and when he spoke into the camera, he knew what Mark would say about his helium voice. For the next fifteen minutes, Jack continued with his challenge video, saying random things in the helium voice for the humor of it added in with his Irish accent. After a bit of time passed, he began to feel really dizzy.

 

“Oh, I feel like I’m goin ta pass out,” Jack said in a barely normal voice. He practically was, as he had to grab onto his table to hold himself up straight just so he wouldn’t fall over. Although, it didn’t do him much good, as in the next moment, Jack had passed out and fallen to the floor.

* * *

As Jack lay passed out on his floor, and Mark slept with his dog, someone else was trying to stay awake. Jonathan Dennis was sitting at his computer, talking with his friend Luke, or CaRtOoNz, who was quickly noticing the drop in Jonathan's focus.

 

“Del, are you okay?” Luke asked, confused.

 

“What?!” Jonathan jumped back to what he was supposedly doing. “I’m fine, awake.” He said, half-consciously.

 

“You sure?” Luke asked with concern. “Because even though you’re wearing your Jason Mask, I’m sure that you look pretty tired.” He said.

 

“I said I’m fine, Luke! Really!” Jonathan exclaimed, actually sounding more awake than he really was. Luke, of course, wasn’t convinced, because it was then that Jonathan put the forehead of his mask on the palm of his hand. Jonathan’s eyes must have drifted shut, because Luke raised an eyebrow when his friend’s head started sliding down his arm. When his head hit the desk, Jonathan cried, “I’m okay!” before trying to straighten himself.

 

Luke gave a huff of laughter. “Sure you are. You should get some sleep, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Okay?” He said.

 

“Okay.” Jonathan yawned beneath his mask.

 

Luke ended the skype call, and Jonathan blinked slowly at his desktop. Jonathan never showed his face to anyone, except for his family and Luke, though on occasion he would wear his mask when talking with his other friends over skype if he was using the video chat instead of keeping his camera covered. He never used a webcam for his YouTube videos, so his face was the only thing that his fans didn’t know.

 

Secretive. Mysterious. And partly psycho. His name made sense in more ways than one, H2O _ Delirious.  _ He was more of a mystery than most people would think.

 

As this “identity unknown” YouTuber struggled to keep his eyes open, he was slowly letting his head lower onto the surface of his desk. Jonathan’s right arm, which had been propped upright, dropped onto his keyboard. It wasn’t long before he was finally out, snoring lightly.

* * *

As Mark slept with Chica, Jack lay passed out on his apartment floor, and Delirious was dozing at his computer, Avery herself was just getting ready for bed. Every night she would write in her diary about how she was coping with the loss of her brother, Danny, and parents’ depressing actions. But not today, not this time. Avery was writing, for the very first time in her diary, a wish. But not just  _ any  _ wish; her heart’s most deepest desired wish. To get the chance to meet them.

 

_ June 17th, 2016. _

_ Today, I have made the decision that I’m going to try to go to the next upcoming con that Markiplier and Jacksepticeye are going to. I so desperately want to meet them in person, and I’ll admit that I’m jealous of the fans that already have. From what I’ve heard, H2ODelirious doesn’t go to cons. If he does, then it can’t be too often, otherwise I’m sure I’d hear about it. _

_ I play  _ Dead By Daylight  _ every single day in hopes that I might end up in a round with him. If that ever happened, I would figure out what character he was, and then never leave his side. I hope that doesn’t sound too weird. _

_ I guess I would probably give anything just to get to see Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and H2ODelirious. If there is something that I can do to get to meet them, I would do it. Heh, I guess I’m one of those crazy “will do anything” girls, huh? I feel the same about Danny. _

_ I would do anything to get my little brother back. _

_ -Avery M. _

 

When Avery was finished writing in her entry for the night, she closed and locked the secret keeping book. For a few moments, she held it pressed under her nose with her eyes closed, breathing deeply, wishing with all her might that what she’d written just now would become a goal, and then that goal would get completed.

 

Avery opened her eyes again and looked down at the light pink fabric cover of her journal. She placed it inside her bedside table drawer, and then clicked off her lamp. She lay down and got herself comfortable under the light blanket and drifted off into an unsuspecting sleep.

 

Unsuspecting because of what happened next.

 

Inside the drawer, Avery’s diary had started glowing in a magical kind of way  **_(sounds cliche, I know)_ ** and had started vibrating wildly. A white beam shot out from the pink colored book and soared into the blackened night sky, splitting into four separate beams that all flew off in different directions.

 

One beam turned and went straight back down towards Avery, covering her from head to toe in white light before dispersing into thin air. The same thing happened with the other three beams, which went to Mark, Jack, and Jonathan. Once the beams were gone, nothing seemed to have happened. The four people were just the same as before, but there was one thing that was different.

 

The question was, what had the beams done?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This parts publishing schedule will be Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays


	2. The Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Lol, I thought yesterday was Thursday and not Wednesday. I realized that too late, but hey, that just means 3 chapters for the first week!

The cold, rotten smelling breeze blew over Mark’s face, making him wrinkle his nose from the foul smell. Wait. . . foul smell? Was Chica digging through his trash again? Was her breath on his face? Was it her breath on his face after she’d gone through the trash? Why was the air so cold, then? Mark couldn’t make out how or what he felt or smelled, so he blinked open his eyes to see what was going on. But instead of seeing Chica or the wall or ceiling of the bedroom in his face, Mark found that he was looking up into the sky. The sky? What on earth was he doing outside?  _ How  _ did he get outside? Maybe he was just dreaming. . . ?

 

Mark sat up and looked around him, hoping to get some bearings. He didn’t get anything except the fact that he was in some sort of junkyard. There was certainly a lot of scrap metal around, piled up to make a makeshift wall of some sort here and there, and there was an old, rusted, gray truck that was missing the front half nearby. An Auto machine graveyard. Interesting. Yup, definitely a junkyard.

 

Mark stood up and turned in whacky, uncompleted circles as he looked around him some more. There was nothing familiar about anything around him, and it certainly didn’t feel like any kind of dream. Just to be sure, Mark slapped himself hard across the face.

 

“Ow!” He exclaimed a moment later.

 

That proved it. This was an auto junkyard, and Mark wasn’t asleep, he was awake. Mark had been kidnapped. From his own home? With Chica there? Surely she would defend her master? Well, if Mark had been kidnapped, where was the kidnapper? They didn’t seem to care too much if he wandered around at all. Hoping it would help him, Mark started doing just that. Wandering around. If he was lucky, he would find something that would tell him exactly where he was, and maybe even find a way out of here.

 

As Mark walked through the clumpy, knee-high (to him) grass, he could only confirm more and more that he was in a junkyard, and nothing and nowhere else. When the grass turned to dirt, he thought he saw a flicker of movement nearby. Mark stopped and looked on in the direction he thought he’d seen the movement, but all he saw was a patchy clearing of dirt and grass. There were some more of those walls made from scrap metal and trash surrounding it, but that wasn’t what was interesting to Mark. It was the hook that stood against one of the scrap metal walls.

 

It was weird, seeing a hook that small in a junkyard for auto machines. Especially when it was attached to a stand as short as it was. It almost looked like one of those stands that people were hung by a noose from, only without the high platform. Even if the hook-stand’s appearance didn’t appeal to Mark, it’s strange familiarity did. He couldn’t help but think that he’d seen a hook like it before, the only problem was that Mark couldn’t think of where he thought he’d seen it before. 

 

The hook was long, black, and dull looking. It didn’t have any shine to it, which presented the fact that it must have been really old.

 

Mark moved away from the clearing and the black hook in search of something else. Of what, he didn’t know, but anything useful would do. As he wandered, Mark began to feel uncomfortable about the junkyard he was in. Something was up, and the kind of familiarity that Mark suddenly felt about the place wasn’t the good kind.

 

Suddenly, Mark stopped in his tracks. Around the corner and partly visible over a tall patch of grass was something that Mark quickly recognized. It was dirty and broken, but all the generators start out that way in the beginning. Mark could feel his heart pounding inside his chest. How was it possible? How was he inside a video game? If this was some sort of playground built by some gaming experts, then it was awesome. But still, Mark couldn’t help but look around. He didn’t know what or who to expect.

 

Mark didn’t know what or who to expect, so he wasn’t expecting who he heard screaming somewhere in the distance. The sound of the shriek itself was familiar to Mark, and he started running in the direction of where the scream had come from.

  
As Mark ran, he felt he was getting closer to where he’d heard him. Then Mark stopped suddenly and looked around over the small piles of litter and abandoned car remnants. All had fallen quiet, and for a moment Mark began to believe he’d just been hearing things. And then he heard footsteps. Running footsteps.  _ Coming towards him! _

 

Mark desperately looked around him, and he spotted a shape moving rather quickly towards him. The person was looking behind them as they ran, so they didn’t know that Mark was there. Before Mark could get a good look at them. . .

 

WHAM

 

The other person ran right into Mark, sending them both tumbling over the ground. When Mark finally managed to stand up, he looked over at the unmoving shape lying on the ground a few feet away from him. His shirt was white and the sleeves went down the other man’s elbows, and were colored a dark green. He wore dark gray jeans, and faded blue sneakers. But the part that Mark had immediately noticed, is what stood out from all that the most. His hair; which was a bright green.

 

Mark ran over to him and turned Jack over and saw his eyes were closed.

 

“Jack?” Mark whispered, a little confused. “Jack?!” He said again, a little louder. To Mark’s relief, Jack stirred and his eyes opened and he looked right at Mark.

 

“Mark?” Jack asked, sounding very confused.

 

“Jack!” Mark exclaimed, gasping with relief. Jack sat up slowly and stared at Mark as though he were a ghost. “What?” Mark asked at the look his friend was giving him.

 

“What are ye doing here?” Jack asked. Mark could hear worry and confusion in Jack’s voice.

 

“What am  _ I  _ doing here? What are  _ you  _ doing here?” Mark said. He fell silent for a moment. “What are  _ we  _ doing here?” He added, looking around.

 

“Well,” Jack started looking around as well. “I think we’re dead or something.” Mark looked at him quickly, his brow furrowed.

 

“Why would you think that?” He asked.

 

“I did tha helium thing ye told me ta do,” Jack began explaining. “But I think I inhaled too much helium. I started ta feel really, like, super duper dizzy and then everything went all hazy. The last thing I remember is passing out and then. . . waking up here.” Jack looked up at Mark with total confusion in his eyes.

 

“Well, unless Chica somehow killed me in my sleep, I don’t see how I’m dead,” Mark said.

 

“Well, then what  _ do you  _ think we are?” Jack demanded.

  
Mark looked around once more before answering. “I think we’re inside the video game  _ Dead By Daylight _ .”


	3. Meeting Avery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, now things are starting to get a little confusing. I've gone back and repeated a few scenes, but they're from a different point of view, so don't skip over them at all if you're one of those people. :P
> 
> How will Jack react to the situation in this chapter?

It was cold, and Jack couldn’t understand why. He slowly blinked open his eyes and found that he was lying on a dirty, hard wooden floor. He was lying on his front side, so he could see the collapsed ramp of the once-upper floor of the old building he was in. The last thing Jack remembered was passing out. Oh god. Was he  _ dead _ ?!

 

_ If I’m dead,  _ Jack thought, sitting up and looking around.  _ What kind of heaven or hell is this? Which is it, even? _

 

Jack stood and started climbing up the collapsed floor, hoping that he would be able to see something helpful from a higher point of view. What he found was something he wasn’t expecting. He quickly recognized it as one of the generators from that game, Dead By Nightfall or something, and only confirmed a little more that he was dead.

 

_ I must be in hell, then,  _ Jack thought. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, and he hated admitting it had to be true, but there wasn’t any other reason he could think of.

 

Jack knew how to play the game, but he left the generator and went back downstairs and then left the house to have a look around. He wanted to explore a bit, and if he knew the game, then he knew that there were always at least three other players or sometimes two. If he was thinking right, then he should be able to find at least one person wandering the map. It was then that Jack realized something; would this “hell” tell him where the others were if they were caught or a generator was fixed? What if he was caught? The only thing Jack could do right now, was look. For what? Anything.

 

As Jack wandered around randomly, he began to feel uncomfortable. It wasn’t just because of the eerie feeling to the place, it was because he felt like there was someone following him. Jack stopped and looked around, and then he saw them; another person. They were still quite a distance away, but Jack could make out the color blue. Jack started towards them, but then he heard the sound of a clanging bell. Jack looked quickly in the direction of the noise and saw the monster, which had also seen him, and bolted from the spot, screaming loudly as he ran away from The Wraith. He knew enough about the game to know that the killer with the bell was called The Wraith, and he also knew that they could turn invisible. Jack looked behind him for the monster, and saw it was running off in another direction entirely. But Jack, even though he was running, caught a glimpse of that other person he’d seen earlier. Jack could only hope that they had escaped, because they disappeared behind a mound of trash, The Wraith running after them.

 

Jack didn’t stop running. He knew that he could stop, now that he was safe, but he didn’t want to stop. Not until he couldn’t run anymore. Jack looked behind him once more, still not stopping. He didn’t think he would have to until he ran into something. Or. . . some _ one. _

 

Jack crashed into the other person and went tumbling over the ground. His head hit the ground hard enough to stun him and he lay still for a moment, dazed and trying to catch his breath. There was a muffled voice, and Jack guessed that his hearing had been turned all fuzzy. He heard it again, but this time it sound clearer. Was it just him, or had the voice said “Jack”?

 

It was then that Jack realized he’d been turned over, so he opened his eyes and looked up at the other person. Now he was really confused.

 

“Mark?” Jack asked. How was Mark here?  _ Why  _ was Mark here? Maybe he was there because Jack wanted him to be.

 

“Jack!” Mark gasped with relief at the sound of Jack’s voice. Jack sat up and stared at Mark. “What?” Mark said.

 

Mark would have said something explaining what was going on by now if he was here only because Jack had wanted him to be and was a figment of his imagination. But Jack couldn’t recall thinking of Mark at all since he’d woken up here.

 

“What are ye doing here?” Jack asked the Markiplier illusion in front of him.

 

“What am  _ I  _ doing here?” Mark sounded utterly confused at the question. “What are  _ you  _ doing here?” Mark fell silent and Jack just kept staring at him. “What are  _ we  _ doing here?” Mark looked around.

 

Jack looked around as well, as though trying to figure out what Mark was looking for. “Well, I think we’re dead or something.” Jack blinked at how quickly Mark’s head swiveled around to look at him.

 

“Why would you say that?” Mark asked. Jack was beginning to wonder the same thing.

 

“I did tha helium thing ye told me ta do,” Jack said. “But I think I inhaled too much helium. I started to feel really, like, super duper dizzy and then everything went all hazy. The last thing I remember is passing out and then. . . waking up here.” Jack looked up at Mark.  _ Wherever  _ here  _ is,  _ he added to himself.

 

“Well, unless Chica somehow killed me in my sleep, I don’t see how I’m dead,” Mark said.

 

It was then that Jack realized that  _ he  _ wasn’t dead, either, which was a huge relief. But that meant that this was the real Mark, wearing his black “King of the Squirrels” t-shirt and tan, knee length shorts and black sneakers. Then there was always the red hair. But if they weren’t dead. . .

 

“Well, then what  _ do you  _ think we are?” Jack demanded.

 

Mark looked around once more before he answered, “I think we’re inside the video game  _ Dead By Daylight. _ ” Mark looked back at Jack, worry expressed in his eyes.

 

Jack’s eyes widened. Not with shock or fear, but with confusion. Inside a game? Either Mark was nuts or Jack was the one going crazy. Or it was just the helium talking. But still!  _ Inside a game?!  _ That wasn’t possible! . . . Was it? No, the world’s technology couldn’t be  _ that  _ developed yet.

 

“What do you mean we’re inside a video game, Mark? Have you lost it?!” Jack exclaimed.

 

“What have you seen so far, Jack?” Mark asked.

 

Jack had to think about that. The collapsed shed, the generator, small piles of scrap metal and trash here and there, rusted cars. They all came from that one map in the game  _ Dead By Daylight _ , only, how was it that that had happened? Jack didn’t want to let himself admit that Mark was right, but that was mostly due to the fact that he couldn’t quite comprehend how all of this was happening. Or why it was happening.

* * *

Mark was still waiting for an answer from Jack, who couldn’t seem to realize what he’d asked. Mark was patient in this case, though. He knew that Jack was confused about all of this, because he was, too. It was a little concerning when Jack made the claim that he thought he, or they, were dead. If they  _ were  _ dead, then this was definitely hell. But Mark knew that they weren’t dead. He and Jack were both still clearly alive. But if they didn’t do anything soon, they may not be that way for much longer.

 

“I hate ta say you might be right, not that I can understand  _ how _ ,” Jack said at last.

 

Mark thought about this. “It could be a joke of some sort,” He suggested. Jack looked at him.

 

“How can we prove that?” He asked.

 

Mark looked around, then he pointed at a broken down crane nearby. “One of us could jump off of that,” He said. Jack stared at him. “If we walk away from it unhurt, then this is the actual game, and it would mean that we’re inside it.” Mark explained.

 

“Yer crazy,” Jack said after he’d had a moment to process this plan. Mark shrugged. “All right,” Jack said. “but yer doing it.”

 

Mark obliged and stood, Jack did the same and followed Mark. The crane was clearly broken, rusted, and obviously no longer operational, but it still worked as an escape route from the killer. Jack watched nervously from the ground as Mark appeared at the highest point that he could reach, which was just behind the neck, and was almost twenty feet up. The plan made perfect sense, as you could jump off the top of the run-down buildings in  _ Dead By Daylight  _ and land on the ground without a single scratch. But that didn’t exactly mean that it wasn’t scary. Jack could see Mark looking down at him nervously, as though he knew how stupid this was. Which, most likely, he did.

 

Mark moved back a few steps and hesitated the first few times he went to jump. Then, Mark suddenly threw himself off the machine and fell to the ground, landing on his head. A fall like that  _ should  _ have broken his neck, killing him instantly, but when Mark  _ stood up  _ unfazed, it became clear what their situation was.

 

They were inside a video game.

 

Crap.

 

Now that Mark and Jack knew for sure that they were inside the horror survival game, they also knew what to do. Fix the generators and escape, beating the game. It was that Mark and Jack were thinking the same thing that they didn’t need to say anything to each other, as they both started heading off in the same direction. Jack was actually following Mark, as he seemed to know where he was going. Mark was heading towards that other generator he’d seen earlier, and once he and Jack reached it, they didn’t actually know how to fix it.

 

“Should we just try random things and hope they’ll work?” Jack asked.

 

“That’s a great way to make it explode and alert the killer as to where we are.” Mark pointed out.

 

“Well then what do you suggest we do?” Jack demanded.

 

Mark put his hand on his chin in thought. As he studied the generator, Jack heard something nearby.

 

“Mark?” Jack looked around nervously. He hoped that it was just another person and not the monster.

 

“Hmm?” Mark said, not taking his eyes off the broken machine.

 

“I think there’s someone nearby,” Jack said, looking at Mark with an expression full of fear.

 

At this, Mark looked at Jack, and then around. When he saw nothing, he said “Maybe it was just shifting trash?” He sounded unsure. Even Mark was looking at the surrounding area nervously, now. Then, both Mark and Jack jumped at a loud crashing noise nearby. To Mark, it came from the direction that the hook he’d seen earlier was. To Jack, it just came from that particular direction, as he didn’t know that the hook was there. Mark looked at Jack, and Jack looked back at Mark. They must have had the same idea, because the two of them started making their way slowly towards the location of the sound without saying a word. When Mark saw the hook, he grabbed Jack and pulled him behind one of the small scrap metal piles.

 

Jack, suddenly curious as to what it was all about, poked his head around the side to look into the clearing. There was someone in it, and they were attempting to tear down a hook.

 

“Hey!” Jack called out to them suddenly. They whipped around in his direction, but before Jack was seen, Mark pulled him back.

 

“Are you crazy?!” Mark whispered loudly at Jack, his face crazy with fear.

 

“Relax,” Jack said. “It was just another person. If it had been the monster, I would have said so!” Jack whispered harshly back to Mark, who seemed to calm down a little.

 

“Hello?” the person in the clearing called. The voice was female.”Is anyone there?” she called out once more, trying to find who’d shout before.

 

Jack looked back around the corner at the person. Standing in the clearing was a  _ girl.  _ She looked around sixteen or so, and had long orange hair. After a few more seconds, the girl shrugged and went back to tearing down the hook. She was wearing blue-jeans and a pink shirt, but that was all Jack could make out. He looked back at Mark, who merely stared at him. Then, Jack stood up and made his way into the clearing.

 

“Hey,” He called again as the girl finally took the hook down. She looked up at Jack’s voice, and her eyes widened. She dropped the hook, but didn’t go to pick it up. Jack stopped. He raised his hands slowly to show he meant no harm, as he thought he’d just done something wrong. Jack glanced to the sides, and then behind him at Mark, who was peering around the pile in puzzlement. He understood this as much as Jack did then, apparently. When Jack looked back at the girl, he saw she hadn’t moved, except for her mouth, which was now open slightly.

 

“Uh, are you. . . okay?” Jack asked, dropping his arms to his sides again and looking at the girl in concern.

 

“Yeah!” she squeaked, a grin forming on her face.

 

Jack tried not to look aghast. She’d just squeaked. Was she sure she was alright? Then, out of nowhere, she started freaking out, curling her hands into fists and shaking them wildly in front of her shoulders. Jack was a little startled by the look of pure joy on her face.  The girl put her hands on her forehead and started talking to herself.

 

“No way! I’m meeting Jacksepticeye! This is incredible!” she was saying.

 

Oh, so she was a fan. That explained her stunned silence and the squeak earlier. She was  _ excited.  _ It was then that Mark came out and stood next to Jack. The girl’s expression turned to shock.

 

“ _ And  _ Markiplier!?” she almost shrieked.

 

Yup, definitely a fan.

 

As Jack and Mark watched the girl get a hold of herself, they also looked around for any sign of the killer. Finally, the girl was calmed down enough to talk properly.

 

“Sorry, sorry,” she apologized, breathing deeply. “I’m just so excited to be meeting you guys!” she said excitedly. Her voice raising a pitch or two as jumped up and down a little. Jack was startled by how mature her voice suddenly sounded when she said, “Although, I wouldn’t say that the circumstances right now are too great.” She fell silent and looked at the ground for a moment, picked up the hook and approached Mark and Jack.

 

“Hi, I’m Avery. Sorry about that whole thing I was doing. It’s just that I’m a really big fan! I mean, I can’t think of a single video on either of your channels that I haven’t watched,” Avery said, almost casually. Jack and Mark shared a sideways glance with each other. Avery looked between the two of them before her shoulders slumped. She lowered her head and gave a huff of nervous laughter. She lifted her head again suddenly and said, “You have no idea of what’s going on, do you?”

 

Mark opened his mouth to reply, but it was several seconds before he finally said, “No.” and let his head drop, his lips puckered weirdly.

 

To Jack’s surprise, Avery smiled.

 

“Come on, I’ll explain everything back at the hideout.” She said.

 

“Hideout?” Jack repeated, puzzled. He wasn’t aware of any “hideout” on any of the maps in  _ Dead By Daylight  _ other than the closets.

 

“Yeah, I’ve discovered that it’s the one place that the monster, or in this case, The Wraith can’t go.” Avery explained.

 

“Oh, so, it’s like a safe point?” Mark asked.

 

“Yeah, basically.” Avery nodded.

 

Deciding that they should give Avery a chance and trust her, Mark and Jack followed her to this hideout.


	4. Avery's Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the things in this chapter might seem a little cliche or coincidental, and if they do, sorry.

Avery awoke with a start. Her eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright at a loud  _ caw _ . She saw a crow flying away in a panic, trying to get away from her as it probably thought that she’d been dead or something. Hold on. What was a crow doing in her bedroom? Wait another moment. This wasn’t Avery’s bedroom; it was a junkyard, and to Avery, it wasn’t just  _ any  _ junkyard, it was  _ the  _ junkyard. Autohaven Wrecker’s, and Avery recognized it from what she saw around her.

 

The hook, the generator, and the walls built from crushed together scrap metal and other trash. She played  _ Dead By Daylight _ so much that she would recognize anything from the game. And in the game, there were several things that a single player could do; destroy hooks, fix generators, disarm traps, save other players, and escape. As it happened, Avery had spawned in right next to a generator and one of the hooks that the monster used to hang the players. But without a toolbox, Avery couldn’t see how she would be able to sabotage it, but decided to at least look it over. To Avery’s surprise, she found that the hook’s design was different from the game’s original design for it.

 

The hook was being attached to the stand by a strap or binding of some sort, which was sealed with a clip. One that Avery could easily undo. There was just one problem. She couldn’t reach up that high. Looking around for something of advantage, Avery spotted a small pile of tires and climbed onto it, carefully made her way across the top of the trash wall over to the hook, and slid across the top of that to the end, where she could easily dismantle it.

 

Avery fumbled with the clip, until she finally got it undone, and then let it fall to the ground before she unbound the strap. The hook fell to the ground, landing with a soft  _ thunk _ , and Avery jumped down with it. She picked up the item and went over to the generator and examined the broken machine. The game had been designed so that all of the characters just happen to know how to fix the machines, but Avery had absolutely no clue how to do that. She examined the machine for a minute or two, taking note of the bent or twisted parts and cut wires. The wires were colored, so she could only guess that they were supposed to be attached. Carefully, Avery took two ends of wire, both colored blue, and started to twist them together so that they made one whole wire. To her relief, it didn’t explode or anything, but a very quiet rumbling began emitting from the generator. Excited, Avery tried doing the same thing with the other sets, and then went to tinker with the bent and twisted parts.

 

She straightened what she could, and found that there were some things that needed tightening. It wasn’t long before Avery suddenly realized that she was being timed on each piece. Luckily, she was able to get the generator running without any mishap.

 

“One generator down,” she said. “Only . . . how many are left?”

 

Avery didn’t know if she was the only one there, but if this was a dream, it was likely that she only needed to fix a small number of generators before she would be able to escape. Leaving the generator behind her, Avery picked up the hook and started off in search of more. As she walked, she noticed something unfamiliar ahead of her. Its outline was a bit lumpy, and Avery hadn’t seen anything like it on this map before. Curious, Avery started towards it, the outline becoming more clear as she got closer. Eventually, as Avery moved towards it, the structure’s details became clear. It was a tree.

 

Not just  _ any  _ tree, though. It was a large, thick trunked, tall oak tree, and judging by the deep, dark green color of the many hundreds of leaves that covered the branches, the tree was very healthy. It seemed a little odd, considering with every breath that Avery took, the smell of rusted scrap metal filled her nose, and there also wasn’t any water around. On  _ any  _ of the maps in  _ Dead By Daylight _ .

 

When Avery came to the base of the trunk, she saw that there was also a treehouse built up high in the branches. This was not on the junkyard map, and Avery was starting to think that this was no dream. Her mind knew what was and what wasn’t inside the game, unless it was playing tricks on her of course.

 

Shrugging, Avery started looking for a way up, and she found it on the other side of the tree, and also noted how it was growing in one of the corners of the map. The way up to the treehouse was inside the tree itself. There was an opening big enough for an adult to fit through, but small enough to keep the one unwanted visitor on the map out.

 

Slipping through the gap, Avery found a ladder nailed into the inner tree, leading up to the treehouse. She held the hook tightly in her hand and started climbing. The ladder was shorter than it looked. When Avery came to the top, she had to push open a trapdoor to get inside.

 

The treehouse gave its first impression as roomy.

 

The room where Avery came out was large, probably around about 50 square feet or so, and it only seemed bigger because it was totally empty. Then there was a smaller split-off section that went a little higher up. There were three or four steps going up to it, and then there was another ladder going up to the roof in the center of the smaller room. All-in-all, the smaller section looked to be about a meter on each side, so about 9 square feet. There was only one window, which was in the wall facing the rest of the junkyard. The walls were painted red, although the color was fading and scratched away in places, and the beams in the corners and framing the open gap of a window were a dark brown.

 

Avery found two small sheets of paper pinned to one of the walls, and one of them was a note that explained some of what was going on. She didn’t really like what it said too much, but then again, she was only dreaming. Right? The other note had the number ten written on it, and below that was a single tally mark.

 

Avery placed the hook she was still holding in the corner opposite of the trapdoor and went to climb the other ladder. The roof was entirely flat, but the point where Avery came out was right next to a thick branch that stretched out almost entirely straight. Avery climbed out onto it, eager to discover more about this fascinating safe point. The large bridge-like branch had small branches jutting out here and there that Avery could easily use for support as she slowly walked over the formation.

 

When Avery stopped walking at last and looked out over the junkyard, she could only imagine how amazing the view would be if it was of something other than Autohaven Wrecker’s. She was overlooking the junkyard, seeing if she could spot another generator anywhere, but instead she saw a few hooks. There was about two or three of them nearby, and Avery knew that dismantling as many as possible would give her a much better chance of escape.

 

Avery turned to head down and collect the hooks, but her foot slipped and she fell from the tree. It happened so suddenly and was over so quickly that she didn’t get the chance to scream.

 

Avery opened her eyes again a few seconds later, but instead of on her bed where she’d expected to find herself, Avery was still in the junkyard. Normally, the moment she hit the ground, she would have woken up at home. And then it hit her.

 

_ This was no dream. This  _ was real.  _ This  _ was  _ Dead By Daylight _ , and Avery was  _ inside  _ the game.

 

Panic and wonder arose inside of Avery as she got to her feet again. She was panicking because she knew she could  _ die  _ in this game. She had done so loads of times before, but now Avery didn’t think that she would be able to keep “playing” if she was killed  _ this  _ time. The wonder that Avery felt was for how this was happening. How was she inside a video game? She wasn’t too confused as to why she was still alive after falling what looked like thirty or forty, even fifty feet down, but that wasn’t because the game was programmed for a player to die or even get hurt if they jumped or fell from high up.

 

If Avery was really inside the game, she needed to get her game mode going and start “playing” by the rules. And make her chances of survival greater.

 

At this thought, Avery ran off in the direction of one of the hooks that she’d seen. When she reached it, she immediately jumped up and grabbed onto it. She hung there for a moment before swinging her legs back and forth until she was able to get them over the top beam. Avery pulled on the hook with one hand while she tried to rip apart the binding holding it in place. It was another few seconds before Avery remembered that there was a clip and went to undo it. She took it off and the hook started to swing slightly as the binding loosened. Avery grabbed one end of the binding and then jumped off.

 

The moment she landed on the ground, taking the binding with her, the hook fell to the ground with its deep-sounding  _ thunk _ . Avery turned around and was surprised at how light the hook felt. She hadn’t seemed to notice the weight of the first one. Throwing the strap piece and clip into a nearby pile, Avery left the post hookless and took the hook with her as she went to dismantle another.

 

There was a rock next to the next hook she found, so she just stood on that to remove the clip and binding. Once the pointy, black hook fell to the ground, Avery tossed aside the clip and binding, jumped down from the rock, and then picked up the two hooks from the dirt and started heading back to the treehouse. She dumped them with the other hook in the treehouse before heading out again. She looked around for a while before she found another hook, and was starting to think that this was too easy, but she still needed to figure out how to dismantle it. They hung about eight feet off the ground, so Avery couldn’t quite reach it. It didn’t matter how tall you were, you’d always be hanging above the ground by your shoulder on one of this hooks if you were ever caught and didn’t escape in time.

 

As Avery tried to figure out a way to get the threatening object down from its stand, she kept an eye out for any sign of the monster. Finally, Avery came up with an idea.

 

She jumped up and grabbed the hook like she had the second one, and then started swinging her legs into the same position. When she was safely secure on the beam, Avery then started gripping the hook higher up until her hands were also on the beam. Then Avery pulled herself around so that she was laying on top of the stand and got to work undoing the clip and pulling off the binding. When the hook had fallen, Avery jumped down again and picked it up off the ground.

 

That’s when she heard the scream.

 

Avery looked in its direction with wild eyes before gripping the hook tightly in her hand and running as fast as her legs could carry her towards the other person. After Avery had traveled quite a distance, she stopped, panting. She looked around wildly, searching for the person who had screamed. Were they on a hook? Or had they just been found by whatever monster was roaming the map with them? All Avery saw was a quick moving blue blur before it disappeared. She saw something else running after it, and quickly realized that it was the monster.

 

“The Wraith,” Avery breathed the name when she heard a very faint roar.

 

Avery started to head after them to help that other person when she saw more movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked over, but didn’t see anything. Suddenly not knowing which direction to go, she went randomly, heading towards the point between the two spots instead. It took a while before she reached it, and then Avery started in the direction of the small movement.

 

Avery suddenly spotted another hook and looked over. It was placed in a clearing that was patchy with small sections of tall grass, and some stray pieces of trash that was littered over the dirt as well. Getting suddenly excited, Avery charged over and partly ran through a mound of the common waste, sending some of the broken, bent, and rusted metal tumbling down the small heap, causing a loud crashing sound to echo slightly over this part of the map.

 

But Avery ran over to the hook without stopping, and the first thing she noticed about it was how much lower it seemed to be. Avery could just about reach the clip if she stood on her toes, and then she realized that it was because the hook’s stand had been sunken into the ground a little. Either way, as long as Avery was able to tear it down, she wasn’t worried too much about it.

 

“Hey!” someone cried out suddenly as Avery got the clip off.

 

She spun around to look for the speaker, but Avery saw no one.

 

“Hello?” she called, looking around some more. “Is anyone there?” she tried again, but still nothing happened. Avery shrugged and went back to taking the hook down. She tossed aside the clip and undid the binding and grabbed the hook before it could fall and let the binding reach the ground.

 

“Hey,” the voice from before spoke again, and Avery looked up, and gasped.

 

Standing just feet away from her was Jacksepticeye!

* * *

“Wow! I didn’t realize that this was here before!” Mark exclaimed when they arrived at the tree.

 

“That’s because it isn’t,” Avery said, showing Markiplier and Jacksepticeye the entrance to the tree. “I think that it’s only here for our case,” Avery explained.

 

“Oh,” said Mark, sounding just slightly disappointed.

 

“Sorry to disappoint you, Mark. I’ve played this game a lot and I would know if this was actually here.” Avery went through the gap and started climbing up into the treehouse.

 

Jack went in after her, as Mark was still gaping at the massive, magnificent tree standing in front of him. When he realized that he was the only one still on the ground, he went inside after Jack and Avery in time to catch a glimpse of Jack just disappearing over the edge of the trap door. He climbed up the ladder and crawled into the roomy treehouse.

 

“Wow, this place looks bigger on the inside,” he commented.

 

“You can’t actually see the whole thing from the ground, but yes, it is bigger than I thought it would be when I first discovered it not too long ago, that’s for sure.” Avery explained, hoping she wouldn’t end up disappointing Mark to much and upset him.

 

“So, just to make things clear,” Avery began. “Do either of you know what we have to do?” she asked Mark and Jack.

 

“Beat the game, obviously,” Jack stated.

 

“Easier said than done,” Mark added.

 

“Yes, and the players almost always get separated,” Avery said.

 

Mark and Jack looked at each other. “What’s your point?” they asked at once, turning back to Avery.

 

Avery had to hold back a laugh. “If any of us get separated, we should come back here. You can find the treehouse if you can find the Blood Lodge,” Avery explained.

 

“The small house that’s falling apart?” Mark asked.

 

“Yes,” Avery confirmed. “but I fear that won’t always be as easy as we might think. I have the right to believe that every single area on the Autohaven Wrecker’s map has been combined into one, meaning that there is a lot of ground here. And with that, there will likely be fewer generator’s, making it harder to find them and we’ll have to travel across the entire map to find the number we need.” she said.

 

“How many do ya think we need ta repair?” asked Jack. “It’s usually four or five, depending on the number of players in a round.”

 

Avery shook her head. “My guess is that since all the maps are spawned into one, we’ll have to fix more than five. In fact, I know how many we need to repair, and that number is ten,” she explained grimly.

 

Mark’s mouth dropped open, and Jack exclaimed, “Ten generators?!” he looked aghast.

 

“Ten.” Avery repeated, though she wasn’t sure she was helping to calm the two adults down at all.

 

It was a while before any of them spoke again, and it was Mark who broke the silence.

 

“Does anyone happen to know why we’re here?” he looked between Jack and Avery.

 

Jack didn’t say anything.

 

“I don’t know why or how, but like Jack had said,” Avery adjusted her sitting position. “We have to beat the game to get out of it.”


	5. A Delirious Experience

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally . . . Delirious enters the fray. About time that maniac showed up. :P

Delirious felt something cold and hard against his back, and was puzzled by how much it felt like metal. That couldn’t be right. . . His desk chair was made of wood. Maybe he’d fallen to the floor? No, that didn’t make sense either. He blinked open his eyes and saw a plastic-like white material directly in front of his face. For a second, Delirious thought he’d been kidnapped or something, until he realized that it was his mask, which was just crooked. He straightened it so that he could see, and then sat up, turning his head slowly in either direction to look around.

 

Where exactly he was, Delirious had no idea, but it looked to be an abandoned, broken vehicle. A bus, Delirious now realized, that had been torn in half and was left here to rust and fall apart. But there was something oddly familiar about the way the bus itself looked, the way the two halves were pressed against each other’s side, and even the surrounding area gave Delirious the creeps. Then Delirious suddenly knew where this was from. He and a few of his friends had run all over it as a joke during one of their rounds in  _ Dead By Daylight _ . Only to confirm that this was that very horror survival game was the long black hook that stood several feet away, next to the decaying school bus. A few piles of old tires sat behind it, and there was some other scrap metal trashed across from it.

 

Delirious flew to his feet and started looking around frantically. This was  _ Dead By Daylight _ . The killer could be anywhere, so he needed to watch his back. But what Delirious couldn’t comprehend was what was actually going on at the moment. Was this real? Or was he dreaming?

 

“It’s just a dream,” Delirious told himself suddenly, backing up slowly. He felt himself calm a little at the words. “Yeah, that’s it,” he said. “This is nothing but a dream, and there isn’t anything you need to worry about, Delirious. Nothing to-WHOA!” Delirious suddenly fell backward, landing on the ground with a soft  _ thud.  _ He’d reached the front of the bus, the left half of which was missing, and had gone over the edge of it.

 

“Get a hold of yourself, Delirious. You're fine,” Delirious mumbled to himself, standing up again.

 

Now that Delirious had convinced himself he was dreaming, he went to have a look around. He kind of wanted to explore a little of the area, though he’d been there before, but considering the fact that he was who he was, there could be something different. Delirious looked around for a moment, feeling eager to check out what was what. He started walking and passed another hook, which looked creepier from the angle he saw it before looking away and continuing his march. It was when he saw the Blood Lodge that Delirious got excited. He wasn’t sure why, but he guessed that it was because he could now get higher up and have a slightly better look around the place.

 

Delirious was just heading over to it when he saw something and quickly ducked behind a small pile of trashed metal and tires. He peeked out over the top and held in a startled yelp. Trudging just feet away from him, with blood covered feet and armed with the skull and spine sword, was The Wraith. Delirious was about to turn around as The Wraith lifted his weapon when he heard someone scream.

 

_ I can’t leave them!  _ Delirious thought suddenly. He climbed onto the pile of trash he was hiding behind. “Hey, weirdo!” he shouted. Delirious caught sight of someone else running in the opposite direction, away from the scene, but The Wraith was no longer interested in them, it would seem, as it was now charging towards Delirious.

 

“Oh shit!” Delirious exclaimed, now realized the immediate danger he was in.

 

Delirious bolted, but The Wraith stayed behind him, and Delirious could hear the grunting roars that it made as it pursued him. Quickly, Delirious leaped aside in a random direction, managing to get behind another small pile of trash just as his pursuer swung its weapon. The blade embedded into the skull's jaw scratched the pile, slicing some of it up, but Delirious hadn’t stopped running. He was still going, and sure enough, when he looked behind him, The Wraith was still following after. At least that other person had escaped. But now Delirious had the problem of doing the same. The Wraith was catching up to him as Delirious was now beginning to tire.

 

There was one thing about  _ Dead By Daylight  _ that made it slightly unfair, and that was the running speed. But Delirious had no restrictions on anything, it would seem, so he started sprinting as fast as he as could, pulling ahead of the killer chasing him. He thought he’d get away for a moment, until he ran past a rusted truck. There was a bit of metal on the front jutting outwards, and Delirious ran right into it. He fell forward, rolling over the ground for several feet, and then he felt something cut his arm. As Delirious scrambled to his feet again, he saw his sweater sleeve had been torn, and blood was oozing out from a fresh scratch. The horrifying realization dawned on him, and Delirious ran even faster away from The Wraith.

 

“THIS IS NO DREAM, DELIRIOUS! IT’S REAL! THIS IS  _ NOT  _ A DREAM!” Delirious shouted at himself as he ran.

 

He spotted a section of walls built from trash and scrap metal crammed together, and made his way towards it. The Wraith followed. Delirious jumped over one of the lowered sections and circled around the next wall. He could hear his heart pounding quickly in his chest, and his breath was uneven from running.

 

But Delirious stilled his breath the best he could when he heard the monster’s footsteps on the other side of the wall. His eyes were wide with fright, and he gulped at the sight of the red glow that it emitted from its white eyes. Delirious scrambled to get around the wall and silently climbed back over the window gap before quickly getting away from the area. He went as quietly as he could, careful not to run, in case he still made chicken-scratch. Once he was sure he was a safe distance away, Delirious ran once more until he had to stop.

 

He leaned up against one of the thick birch trees to catch his breath. Once he could breath again, Delirious pushed up his sleeve to look at the scratch. Blood has stained the blue fabric of his sleeve, and the cut itself was turning dark red, now. Delirious rolled his sleeve back down and looked around. If this was real, which it appeared it was, then that meant that there were other people around as well. After all, Delirious had just saved one of them. Maybe they would be able to help. All Delirious had to do was find them. If that was possible.

 

He carefully started sneaking around the grove of trees, listening for anything that would tell him something or someone was nearby. He wasn’t actually paying attention to where he was walking, and almost tripped over a long, wooden box. Looking around once more to be sure that there was no threat nearby, Delirious bent down and opened the lid and started rummaging through the chest. He found a flashlight, which he slid into his sweater pocket before leaving the box behind him.

 

Delirious walked for a while, before he found himself back where he started; at the school bus. He looked at it silently, as though wishing it could get him out of here, and then realized that there was something different about it. After a quick examination, he realized that the hook that had been next to the dead vehicle was now gone. Delirious froze. Were they still around?

 

“H-Hello?” Delirious called out, looking around him slowly. “Is a-anyone there?” he started to think that the person may have been here ages ago and had left already.

 

Then Delirious saw movement and dove behind the bus, peering through one of the empty windows to see what it was. He couldn’t find the movement again, though, and thought he was seeing things. The Delirious suddenly heard the clanging bell and ducked out of sight quickly. It went on for several minutes, and then it faded into the distance. Once Delirious was sure that the Wraith was gone, he came out of hiding and started towards where it had attacked.

 

“Jack? Avery!” a voice called out.

 

Delirious started his approach more cautiously, unsure if it was safe to suddenly appear in front of this stranger. It fell quiet for a few moments before Delirious could hear strange clicking noises. He suddenly realized that this other person was repairing a generator. He found where the generator was, and paused at a window. There was another man already at the generator, but his back was turned, so he didn’t even know Delirious was there.

 

Delirious didn’t want to startle the guy, since that would likely cause the generator to explode, alerting the killer as to where they were. Then, Delirious had a sudden idea. He scraped his foot over the ground, and to his luck, the man stopped what he was doing and slowly stood up, looking around.

 

“Jack?” the man said cautiously.

 

“Uh, hello?” Delirious didn’t exactly know who this “Jack” was, but he needed the other guy to see him.

 

The moment Delirious had spoken, the man spun around a little too quickly, it would seem, as he fell to the ground. “Holy shit!” he cried when Delirious spoke.

 

“Oh, I apologize! I didn’t mean to scare you!” Delirious apologized quickly.

 

It took a moment before the other man caught his breath again and was able to stand up once more.

 

“That’s alright. I thought you were the thing,” he said. “Now I just see you’re the other person.”

 

“ _ The  _ other person?” Delirious repeated.

 

“Yeah, Avery said there was likely to be a fourth person running around. I guess that’s you,” the man explained.

 

“Oh,” Delirious said before asking, “Who’s Avery?”

 

“Someone I’m sure you’ll meet soon enough.” The man assisted Delirious over the gap in the wall and then held out his hand. “Name’s Mark,” he said.

 

Delirious took it. “Delirious,” he said, not sure if he should give his real name or stage name.

 

“Nickname?” Mark guessed.

 

“YouTube,” Delirious corrected.

 

“Oh, well in that case,” Mark started, “I’m Markiplier.”

 

It was a moment before Delirious asked “So, what exactly is going on here?”

 

Mark put his hands on his waist and looked around. “I don’t have a very clear idea myself, but I know that Avery can explain some things when you two get met up,” he said.

 

Delirious didn’t really know what to say to this, so instead he asked “Need some help?”

 

“What? Oh,” Mark quickly remembered the generator. “Do you know how to fix one?” he asked, crouching down next to the machine.

 

“No. . .” Delirious admitted, getting down on the other side.

 

“Do you see the colored wires? You have to reattach them together in the colored pairs.” Mark explained. “There are also some loose pieces we want to to tighten and others that need straightening,” he finished.

 

“Sounds complicated,” Delirious commented, replacing a yellow wire.

 

“But surprisingly easier done,” Mark added. “Oh, and watch out, there’s a timer with each wire and piece.” Mark warned.

 

Delirious nodded, though he wasn’t sure if Mark had seen it. He started noticing the timers, and was sure to be finished with whatever he was doing before they ran out. Finally, a bright light flashed on above them, and Delirious followed Mark away from the newly repaired generator quickly. Once it was out of sight, he realized that Mark was going somewhere specific.

 

“Where are we headed to?” he asked Mark.

 

“The hideout,” Mark answered. “Avery said to go there if we were ever separated,” he explained.

 

_ This Avery character seems to say a lot,  _ Delirious thought, but he didn’t say anything.

 

When Mark and Delirious reached the hideout, Delirious was at a loss for words. He stopped walking and looked practically straight up at the enormous oak tree, his mouth open in shock beneath his mask. Delirious looked down again and saw that Mark looked rather amused at his reaction. Before Delirious could say anything, Mark stepped behind the tree. Delirious followed, and quickly found that Mark had actually gone  _ inside  _ the tree. Suddenly eager to see more, Delirious went through the small entrance and started climbing the ladder concealed inside. The treehouse was pretty empty, other than a few hooks in a small pile in one corner.

 

“How is there a hideout?” Delirious asked Mark, who was leaning against one wall with his arms crossed. Mark shrugged his answer.

 

Delirious went past him, seeing the second ladder that went higher up, and quickly found himself on the roof. He crawled out over the flat branch that worked as a deck and peered out over the junkyard. Delirious could see the small house over in the distance, and The Wraith was prowling in and around it. He laughed a little at the sight of the killer looking for someone to hunt down and hook. He looked a little dumb when doing it hopelessly. 

 

Mark, someone else named Jack, and then Avery. Even though it wasn’t a dream, at least Delirious wasn’t alone.


	6. The Fourth Player

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Repeats!  
> But it's only so the story makes sense.

“How many do ya think we need ta repair?” asked Jack. “It’s usually four or five, depending on the number of players in a round.”

 

Avery shook her head. “My guess is that since all the maps are spawned into one, we’ll have to fix more than five. In fact, I know how many we need to repair, and that number is ten,” she explained grimly.

 

Mark’s mouth dropped open, and Jack exclaimed, “Ten generators?!” he looked aghast.

 

“Ten,” Avery repeated, though she wasn’t sure she was helping calm the two adults down at all.

 

It was a while before any of them spoke again, and it was Mark who broke the silence.

 

“Does anyone happen to know why we’re here?” he looked between Jack and Avery.

 

Jack didn’t say anything.

 

“I don’t know why or how, but like Jack had said,” Avery adjusted her sitting position. “We have to beat the game to get out of it.”

 

“How do you even know that we only have to repair ten generators?” Mark asked finally.

 

“I know that it’s only ten because when I found this place, I found this note with it.” Avery handed Mark and Jack a small slip of paper.

 

_ Welcome to the game, players! _

_ You may have already noticed that this treehouse is a safe point. It is here for your specific case because the rules of physics are slightly different from when you play the game in the real world. The four of you will have to play against the four killers on the different maps, one at a time. On each new map, there is a safe house like this one. You will know if it is the safe house by a note with a number written on it. This number indicates how many generators you must repair in order to move on. _

_ Also, there is a Journal somewhere on this map that can explain everything about your current situation. All you have to do is find it. _

_ Good luck! _

 

When Mark and Jack were finished, Avery gave them the sheet of paper sporting the number ten written on it.

 

“This first note says ‘four’ on it,” Mark pointed out. “There’s only three of us.” he said.

 

Avery sighed. “I know, which means that there is a likely chance that someone else is still running around yet,” she guessed.

 

Jack looked from Avery to Mark, then back at Avery. “Well, then we have ta go and find them,” he said pointedly.

 

“We will, eventually,” Avery said, taking the notes back and tacking them to the wall. “But for now, if any of us want to get home, then we have to go with what we know so far.”

 

Mark and Jack stared at her.

 

“So, what yer saying is, we should go back out there and try to fix a bunch of broken machines while there’s a chance of us getting killed?” Jack asked, his tone hard.

 

“Basically,” Avery said calmly.

 

“We just got here!” Jack exclaimed. “And I sure as hell still don’t understand what the fook is goin on,” he added.

 

“No one does, Jack,” Mark grumbled.

 

“I know,” Avery said. “But the sooner we move on, the quicker we’re out of the game, and once we’re out, we’re back home.”

 

Jack sighed, unable to disagree with Avery’s words, now. Mark looked down at his lap, shifting his hands awkwardly. Neither of them could really deny that Avery was right, and it wasn’t like they wanted to anyway. They both obviously liked the idea that they could return home, it was just that Mark and Jack were scared of how they would have to make that happen. Going around fixing machines that could possibly explode in your face while there was also a monster running around trying to kill you wasn’t exactly something that anyone would want to deal with.

 

A video game version of all that was harmless, but it was an entirely different story in real life.

 

“Well,” Jack began, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had surrounded them. “We’re not going ta get anywhere by staying here,” he said. “We should head out.”

 

Avery nodded. “I’ll tell you guys what we have to do once we get to that point,” she told them.

 

The three of them stood up and one by one, went back down the ladder to the ground. They came upon a small section of the junkyard that was littered with rusted car parts, and a hook was standing in the middle. Mark and Jack worked together to make a pile of tires underneath it by rolling them over, and Avery was able to stand on the large rubber rings and take down the hook. She gave the hook to Jack to carry before they went off again.

 

“Still no sign of a generator,” Mark said after a while, sounding very confused. “Surely we would have spotted one by now?”

 

“They’re spread out across the different areas, I’m guessing. And there’s also the chance that the total number of generators on the entire map is also the number we have to repair,” Avery said.

 

“That’s reassuring,” Jack complained sarcastically. Avery ignored him.

 

They found another hook next to a rusted bus that lay in pieces, its two halves collapsing in on themselves slightly. While Avery dismantled it, Mark and Jack were looking around for a generator.

 

“Hey, Avery! We found one!” Mark called out just as Avery pulled the black hook off the stand.

 

“Really? That’s great!” She ran over and joined Mark, who was waiting for her. “Where?” she asked.

 

“Just over here,” Mark said, pointing ahead of Avery.

 

She followed Mark to where Jack was waiting for them. A generator sat next to him, and a wall made from scrunched together trash and metal stood on one side. A small part of it was cut away, forming a window through which they could climb if they needed to make an escape. Avery got down on one side and Mark and Jack took the other.

 

“Okay, so do you guys see the colored wires?” Avery asked. “You have to reconnect them with the matching color. Some other pieces of the generator are bent or loosened, so we have to tighten or straighten them.” Avery put her hands into the mix of metal gadgets and added, “Oh, and watch out for the timers on each part.”

 

There was clicking as Mark and Jack got to work and Avery began tightening a loose screw. She could hear grumbling and some other noises from behind the generator whenever Mark or Jack messed up or almost missed fixing something in time.

 

“Mark, take this side,” Avery said, getting up. “I’m going to try at the side panel.”

 

Mark took her place on the side opposite of Jack, while Avery studied the front side of the machine. She tested a few bolts and screws, found a few were loose and tightened them before looking for something else. Avery found a small wire poking out from behind a thin pipe and replaced it into its proper socket. The generator was rumbling rather decently now, and Avery thought they might just get it when there was a clanging noise.

 

Mark and Jack stopped what they were doing and looked towards the sound. A second later, the generator exploded.

 

“RUN!” Avery shouted as The Wraith came into sight at last.

 

Jack ended up running in the same direction as Avery, but Mark must have panicked and charged off blindly, because he wasn’t with them. The Wraith was still nearby, since Jack and Avery could still hear it grunting angrily as it ran after them. But they stopped running and hid themselves, crouching low in a patch of tall grass. They kept themselves still as The Wraith came into sight. Jack desperately tried to hide his bright green hair, which stood out ominously. Luckily, The Wraith didn’t see them and, clanging his bell and turning invisible once more, moved away in the direction of the Blood Lodge.

 

Finally, Jack and Avery stood once more and started looking around for Mark as they made their way back towards the generator.

 

“You think he’s okay?” Jack asked worriedly.

 

“As long as Mark knows to head back to the hideout, I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Avery said, but she didn’t sound so sure.

 

As they walked on, they noticed a bright light ahead of them and discovered the generator already fully repaired.

 

“Mark must have come back to it already,” Avery guessed.

 

“If he did, then he wasn’t alone,” Jack said suddenly. He bent over and took something off the generator, then showed it to Avery, who took it.

 

It was a small piece of blue fabric, and it was stained with something a little reddish, which was still wet. After a quick sniff, Avery realized that the stain was blood.

 

“Mark wasn’t wearing anything blue,” Jack said as Avery still examined the torn fabric. “So it must be from something else,” he said.

 

“Or someone else,” Avery corrected, trying to hold back an outburst of excitement.

 

“What?” Jack said, puzzled.

 

Avery looked up from the bloody material and at Jack. “I think I’ve got an idea of who our fourth ‘player’ is,” she said, her eyes sparkling a little.

 

Jack stared at her. “You sure?” he asked.

 

“I could be wrong,” Avery said, looking back at the fabric again. “We won’t know for sure until we get back to the hideout. Let’s go.”


	7. Generators And A Split-Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now things start to get crazy.

“Mark? Are you up there?!” Avery called up to the treehouse when she and Jack reached it.

 

Mark appeared in the window and waved down at them. Avery let Jack head up first before going to climb the ladder herself. She felt a little confused when she found that Mark was alone.

 

“Saw you finished the generator,” Jack said.

 

“Yeah,” Mark took the note with the ten on it off the wall and handed it to Avery. “Apparently it’s keeping track of how many generators we’ve got. I’m guessing you had already got one before we met?” he asked.

 

Avery nodded. “That’s how I know what we need to do to fix them.” She looked at the paper. A second tally mark had been drawn next to the first one. Mark was right about it keeping track, then.

 

“Mark,” Avery suddenly remembered the fabric. “Was there anybody else with you when you came back here?” she asked.

 

“Oh, yeah!” Mark went over to the roof hatch and went up.

 

Jack looked at Avery. “Why do you look so excited?” he asked, puzzled by her expression.

 

Avery hadn’t realized that her outburst was starting to leak out and forced it down again, trying to make herself look calm. Finally, Mark came back with Delirious behind him. Avery felt a small stab of disappointment when she saw the mask, but was quickly able to push it away.

 

“Hi,” Jack said.

 

“I’m guessing you must be Jack?” Delirious said, holding his hand out.

 

“Yeah,” Jack said, taking it.

 

“H2ODelirious,” Delirious said.

 

“H2O- what?” Jack said, squinting his eyes in confusion.

 

Delirious looked over at Avery, who had her hands over her mouth and nose, and her eyes were shut tightly as she was trying to contain her excitement, which was about to explode.

 

“I can only guess that Avery watches you as well, so you’ll have to give her a minute to get ahold of herself. She was nearly shrieking when she first met us,” Mark explained.

 

“Oh,” Delirious said.

 

Avery finally managed to calm herself enough to say, “Hi,” her voice was a high pitched squeak, though.

 

Delirious could only guess that Avery had only barely gotten a hold of herself, because she was bobbing up and down slightly with excitement.

 

“You okay?” Delirious asked.

 

Avery nodded her head quickly in reply. She finally managed to calm herself down enough to speak properly, and was no longer bouncing on her feet.

 

“Okay, so, has Mark explained anything  to you, yet?” Avery asked.

 

Delirious shook his head. “Not really,” he stated.

 

Avery gave him the note that explained some of what was going on.

 

“Journal?” he said when he’d finished reading.

 

“We haven’t found it yet,” Avery said. “So we still don’t really know what’s going on or why we’re here,” she finished.

 

“Or  _ how _ we’re here,” Jack added.

 

“What’s the number of generators?” Delirious asked.

 

“Ten, but we’ve already got two down, leaving us with eight to go,” Mark explained.

 

“So, Delirious,” Avery made herself comfortable on the floor. “How did you come to meet Mark anyways?” she asked.

 

“Well,” Delirious recalled everything to Avery, Mark, and Jack, starting with when he found himself on the rusted and broken school bus. He explained how he’d saved one of them from the Wraith in the beginning by the Blood Lodge (“That would’ve been me,” Jack put in) and how he’d managed to lose the monster. He told them about the flashlight he’d found, and then how soon after that he ran into Mark.

 

“Mark told me how to fix the generators already, so I can help you guys with the others,” Delirious finished.

 

“Right, and there’s only eight left, so we should try to finish fixing them all,” Avery said. “We can gather more hooks while we do so, too.”

 

“Don’t we need a toolbox for that?” Delirious asked pointedly.

 

“Not this time, we don’t.” Avery answered. “The hook’s design is different from what it is in the actual game. I believe it is to make things more interesting or quite possible easier for us.” she explained.

 

“So there’s a better chance that we’ll all get out of here?” Delirious asked.

 

“Yes.” Avery nodded.

 

“Well then, I’m all in,” Delirious said, his eyes looking determined through his mask.

 

“Before we leave again, though,” Mark started. “I’ve been wondering. Delirious, why are you wearing a Jason Voorhees mask?” he asked.

 

“He likes that particular character from  _ Friday The 13th _ , I’m guessing,” Avery said.

 

“Hell yeah,” Delirious said. “Voorhees is the best killer I’ve seen in anything.”

 

“That’s not what I meant,” Mark said.

 

“I keep my face hidden from everyone,” Delirious explained, unclearly.

 

“If I’m not mistaken,” Avery began. “No one from your group of friends actually knows what you look like except for Luke?” she said.

 

“Just him and family,” Delirious confirmed.

 

“So, you’re like one of those secretive YouTubers?” Jack guessed. “Never use a webcam or whatever?”

 

Delirious nodded. “The subscribers can only guess,” he said.

 

“And it drives us nuts,” Avery said. “Especially when it comes to the fanfics.”

 

Delirious looked at her quickly. “What do you mean by that?”

 

“I mean everyone tries to give you an identity that seems fitting for what you’re like in your videos,” Avery explained.

 

Delirious was silent.

 

“You’ve got identity issues, while Jack and I have Septiplier problems,” Mark said.

 

“I don’t actually ship it, by the way.” Avery told him and Jack. “Or you with Vanoss,” she added to Delirious.

 

Delirious seemed to relax a little.

 

“Wow, you’re probably the first fan of your age I’ve met that doesn’t.” Mark said.

 

Avery shrugged. “Well, I am only fourteen and a half,” she said.

 

“Wait, what?” Jack was startled. “Yer only fourteen?!”

 

“And a half,” Avery said. “Yeah, I know, I look older than that.”

 

“Yet you know a lot about this game,” Jack said.

 

“Yep. I also know that we’ve all been sitting here for nearly thirty minutes.” Avery said, looking at a watch around her wrist.

 

Jack scooted across the floor and disappeared down the trapdoor saying “I’m out.”

 

“Well, hold on and wait for us, Jack!” Avery giggled lightly, standing up and going down after him.

 

Mark and Delirious followed after them, and once all four of them were back on the ground, they went off on their mission. Avery tore down another hook as they walked, and then suddenly realized where they were headed. In front of them was a forest of thick trunked birch trees, and there were small piles or stacks of trash here and there. It was almost like a maze, but the group found another generator beneath one of the trees, and another hook by a barrel with a fire burning on its top.

 

“I forget what this forest area was called,” Delirious said.

 

“I think it was the Wretched Shop, but I could be wrong,” Avery said. “I know that the other names were Asarov’s Resting Place and the Wrecker’s Yard.”

 

They had reached the other side of the forest, where a lot of broken and rusted cars, vans, trucks, buses, and even tankers were scattered everywhere.

 

“Okay, now this is Asarov’s Resting Place,” Avery said. “It’s got to be. I know that it has a lot of vehicles around and a strange hourglass kind of shape to it.”

 

“Hey, there’s a generator over there!” Jack called out suddenly.

 

Mark, Delirious, and Avery looked in the direction he was pointing. There was another generator, and all four sides of it were open, so the whole group could work on it. The moment the light came on the four of them ran from the area. When they stopped, the faint clanging of the bell could be heard.

 

“We better hurry, he’s catching up to us,” Avery said.

 

“We have ta be more careful,” Jack drawled, glaring at Delirious.

 

“What?” Delirious said at the look Jack gave him.

 

“Yeh almost caused tha generator to explode!” Jack was suddenly up in Delirious’ face, his blue eyes full of anger. “Just considering how close that monster is ta us now, it could have gotten one of us if that machine blew!” Jack said, his frustrated tone making Avery and Mark nervous.

 

“Well, it didn’t blow, did it?” Delirious growled. “At least I don’t fumble with the wires like you were!” Delirious crossed his arms.

 

“Guys! Can we not fight, please?” Mark tried to put himself between Jack and Delirious. “There are more important things to worry about right now,” he said.

 

Delirious and Jack stopped arguing, though they still glared at each other. It was unusual for Jack to dislike somebody, since he loved just about everyone. And for Delirious. . . Well, that really depended. Avery couldn’t really make up her mind on if it was completely out of the ordinary or just something that didn’t usually happen.

 

“Let’s just get out of here before the killer finds us,” Avery said desperately.

 

They continued walking on in silence, looking for another generator or hook. The Blood Lodge was once again visible in the distance, so the group must have circled around the map. They found another generator soon after, on a hill that had a view of the backside of the Blood Lodge. The rumbling of the generator grew louder as Avery, Mark, and Delirious repaired it. Jack was standing on the edge of the hill, looking out for The Wraith. The light came on when the machine was fixed, and at the same time, The Wraith showed up.

 

It rang its bell, once again becoming visible, and then ran up the hill.

 

Mark, Avery, and Delirious scattered, while Jack jumped over the hill’s cliffside, landing on the ground below. He rejoined Mark in his escape while Avery and Delirious tried to get back around to them. The Wraith raced after Avery, who began to lead it away from the others. Delirious caught up to Mark and Jack as they stopped to watch Avery, ready to jump in if she would ever need help with this chase.

 

It became clear that she did when she just barely managed to get behind a tree, dodging The Wraith’s skulled weapon. Mark was first to charge over, Jack and Delirious close behind him.

 

“Avery, get out of there!” Mark called, throwing a piece of rusty metal at The Wraith. The trash hit the monster squarely in the back of the head, and it swung around, flailing its weapon wildly.

 

“Scatter!” Avery yelled at Delirious, Mark, and Jack as The Wraith ambled towards them. The three adults split, running in opposite directions. The Wraith went after Mark, and Jack went after The Wraith while Delirious got back with Avery, and the two of them followed after.

 

Mark threw a wooden pallet down as The Wraith swung its weapon. It cut out a large splinter of the wood, but at least the monster was slowed down in its pursuit of Mark. Mark kept running, headed toward an opening in the small ring made from piles of scrap metal as The Wraith broke apart the wood that had stopped it in its path. Mark didn’t see the metal sheet sticking out at the opening, though, and he fell to the ground with a cry of pain. Mark clutched the bloody part of his right leg as pain crawled through it. He looked back at the metal sheet and found that the end was stained with his blood at least half an inch down. Mark lifted one hand and saw a two inch scratch across his calf and realized the metal had cut into his leg.

 

The Wraith had broken through the wood now, and was just feet away from him, but when Mark stood up and tried to run again, his leg exploded with pain and gave out underneath him and he fell to the ground again, moaning. The Wraith stopped and bent over, picking up Mark by the back of his shirt and threw him over its shoulder.

 

“Mark!” Jack’s voice cried.

 

Mark struggled against The Wraith, trying to push himself out of the monster’s grip. He was worried that the beast would find a hook soon, but because Avery had been taking them all down, Mark was able to push himself out far enough that The Wraith had to drop him.

 

Despite the agonizing pain it gave him, Mark ran the best he could away from the monster. His leg finally gave way beneath him and Mark collapsed once again, but Jack and Delirious were quickly at his side. Avery jumped in front of The Wraith, dodging a swing from its knife-embedded skull stick.

* * *

Jack was already running as fast as his legs could carry him. Running after The Wraith, running after Mark. He was terrified that Mark might get caught. But then Mark slipped through a small gap and threw a large plank of wood down, blocking The Wraith’s way. Jack saw a small piece of wood fly off the pallet and stopped, almost falling forward from the sudden halt. Jack felt a bit of hope that Mark may actually get away, but then he fell to ground with a cry of pain. He’d been hurt.

 

Avery and Delirious stopped next to Jack and could only watch with him as The Wraith broke the platform into pieces and stomped through the opening. Mark stood up and tried to run again, and Jack flinched horribly when he fell back to the ground. His eyes widened with fright when The Wraith picked Mark up.

 

“Mark!” he cried out fearfully.

 

Jack, Avery, and Delirious followed after The Wraith as Mark struggled on its shoulder. Finally, the beast was forced to drop Mark when he’d almost gotten out of its grip. Mark was practically hopping on his left leg as he made a desperate attempt to escape, but then he tried to actually run and his leg collapsed beneath him, sending him sprawling back onto the ground.

 

“Go help Mark!” Avery said quickly and ran towards The Wraith.

 

Jack and Delirious were already racing over to Mark and got down at his sides as Avery threw herself in front of The Wraith. She just barely got out of the way of its weapon.

 

“Get Mark back to the hideout!” she told Jack and Delirious as she ran in the opposite direction, away from them.

 

“What are you going to do?!” Delirious called after her.

 

Avery didn’t answer and kept running. She finally disappeared from sight behind a truck. They heard a loud roar from The Wraith before it swung at the truck and then. . .

 

BOOM

 

Jack and Delirious shielded their eyes while Mark turned his head away from the explosion. When it fell quiet again, Delirious was staring off in the direction that Avery had vanished.

 

“What. . . what happened?” he asked, his voice desperate.

 

“I don’t know, but we need ta do what Avery said to and get Mark back to the hideout,” Jack said, examining Mark’s bleeding leg.

 

Mark was moaning with pain as blood continued to spill out from the deep cut. Delirious didn’t seem to want to move, not without knowing what had happened to Avery, but he helped Jack get Mark to his feet and to support him under the arms as they took him back to the treehouse.

  
Hopefully, Avery was alright and would make it back there as well.


	8. A Missing Avery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where has Avery gone? Is she even still alive? And what about Mark's injury?

The wind rustled the leaves of the giant oak tree as Delirious sat out on the flat branch by the roof of the treehouse. He was staring out over the junkyard, looking for any sign of The Wraith, or even better, of Avery. All of this was real, and Avery was still just a kid, so Delirious couldn’t stand the thought of her dead.

 

Inside the treehouse, Mark was flinching slightly as Jack wrapped his injured leg with bandages. They had found a box on the way back here, and got lucky when Delirious found a first-aid kit inside it. Jack finished and pasted the end of the bandage to the rest.

 

“Who knows if I’ll still be able to walk with this leg for a while now?” Mark said as Jack closed the small red case.

 

“Well, hopefully you’ll be able to soon, because I don’t think we’ll be able ta carry you all the time.” Jack placed the kit against the wall next to Mark.

 

Mark sighed. “How long do you think he’ll stay out there?” he asked, looking up at the roof hatch.

 

Jack followed his gaze before looking down at the floor. “I don’t know,” he said. He disliked the idea that Avery was dead, and Mark did, too, but what were the chances that she was still alive after that explosion?

 

Jack stood up and went over to the window. “Hey, Del, could ya come back down here?” he asked.

 

Outside, Delirious growled lightly. “Don’t. . . don’t call me Del,” he grumbled.

 

“Oh, sorry. Is it a friends only thing?” Jack asked.

 

“Sort of,” Delirious answered. He stood and went back down into the treehouse anyway, though.

 

Jack was still standing at the window, and Mark was carefully making small movements with his leg. Delirious looked at the pile of hooks in the corner and a feeling of dread fill him.

 

“She might not come back,” Jack said suddenly.

 

“I don’t want to stay here waiting, though,” Delirious stated. “I want to go look for her.”

 

“There’s a chance that she isn’t even out there anymore,” Jack said.

 

“What do you mean by that?!” Delirious demanded.

 

“You’ve played this game before, right?” Jack asked.

 

“Yeah,” Delirious answered.

 

“Surely you’ve died in it before?” Jack asked. Delirious was silent for a second or two before he gave a small nod. “You know how when you die, your character completely vanishes as the weird spider creature thing takes them,” Jack explained.

 

Delirious felt a surge of anger. “Are you suggesting that Avery might not even exist anymore?!” he growled.

 

“I didn’t say that, I just said that you may never find her,” Jack clarified.

 

“What made you think I was planning to go alone?” Delirious said.

 

“Must I remind you that Mark can’t currently stand up?” Jack took a few steps forward towards Delirious, who didn’t move.

 

“I’m aware that he can’t go anywhere, but I don’t want to not at least  _ try  _ looking for her!” Delirious argued.

 

“Then you can go look for her!” Jack puffed. “I’m staying here with Mark.”

 

Delirious tried to think of something to say back, but gave up and left the treehouse, disappearing down the ladder shaft. Jack scoffed and turned, looking out the window to watch Delirious walk away.

 

“Jack,” Mark said, bringing Jack’s attention to him. “You should really go with him.” Mark looked into Jack’s eyes.

 

“What?! No! I’m not leaving you here alone, Mark,” Jack protested. “Besides, that thing could still be out there if it wasn’t destroyed in the explosion!” he said.

 

“Even if it is, it can’t get up here.” Mark reminded Jack. “Avery said so because it’s written on the note that this is a safe point, or have you forgotten?” he said.

 

Jack sighed. Mark was right. But still. . .

 

“I just don’t want ta leave you alone,” Jack said quietly.

 

Mark chuffed. “I’ll be fine, Jack. If anything, what I need right now is some rest,” he said.

 

Jack thought about this for a moment. “You sure you’ll be okay?” he asked Mark worriedly.

 

Mark rolled his eyes. “Jack, go after Delirious already,” he grumbled.

 

“Okay, fine!” Jack said, heading down the ladder.

 

Once on the ground, he took off in the direction that Delirious had gone.

 

“H2O! Are you still around here?” Jack called out.

 

“That’s a new one.” Jack turned at Delirious’ voice. “Why did you came after me?” Delirious asked. “It wasn’t to bring me back, was it?” Jack saw his eyes narrow behind the Jason Mask.

 

Jack sighed. “Mark told me to come with you,” he answered.

 

“Oh,” Delirious said, growing less defensive. “I was just going to the explosion sight. Usually the best place to start looking.”

 

“Right,” Jack nodded.

 

He followed after Delirious in the path that they had carried Mark. It had been an extreme situation at the time, so they hadn’t been looking around. But now that they could take some time, Jack spotted a generator nearby and pointed it out to Delirious. The reattached cut wires, straightened bent parts, and tightened loose bolts and screws in silence. The moment the light came on, Jack and Delirious moved on from the spot and came upon the Blood Lodge. Delirious automatically took off running in the direction of the explosion sight, forcing Jack to race after him. What seemed like a mile of running later, Delirious finally stopped, and Jack almost ran right into him.

 

“This is definitely where it happened.” Delirious said.

 

Jack had to agree with him on that, because there were a few trees surrounding the area that had been partly turned black and the already dead grass was burnt and smoldering. A small crater had been formed in the ground, and the truck that had exploded was nowhere to be seen. All that seemed to be left of it was a single rearview mirror. But there was no sign of Avery anywhere, except for a small spot of blood on the ground across the clearing. If Avery was still alive, then she must have left the area. Meaning she was now either back at the treehouse or still wandering around the map.

 

Avery may not have been there anymore, but The Wraith sure was. Jack was the first to spot it and quickly alerted Delirious. It hadn’t seen them yet, so Jack and Delirious cautiously made their way around it. They were almost in the clear when Delirious suddenly realized something different about it.

 

“Uh, Jack?” Delirious stopped Jack by touching his shoulder.

 

“What?” Jack looked at him.

 

Delirious pointed at The Wraith. “Was there blood on the skull before?” he asked.

 

Jack didn’t know what he was talking about for a moment, but then he looked for himself. Delirious was right; there was blood on the skull of the Wraith’s weapon, and there hadn’t been before the explosion.

 

“Crazy idea,” he said suddenly, looking around and picking a bent pipe up off the ground.

 

“What?” Delirious didn’t take his eyes off the monster, which was patrolling the crater.

 

“We should attack it.” Jack said.

 

Now Delirious looked at Jack as though he was insane. “What?!” he exclaimed.

 

“It’s just an idea, H2O,” Jack explained quickly.

 

Delirious scanned Jack’s face for a moment. He was serious about this, so he left Jack and went over to a nearby pile of trash and soon returned with half a crowbar. He gave Jack a nod to say he was ready and the two of them began stalking The Wraith. The killer suddenly rang its bell and turned invisible, and Jack and Delirious were watching the unclear form of it running off in the opposite direction. It was difficult too, but they followed after it.

 

It stopped at the edge of the trees and looked around after uncloaking. Jack and Delirious shared a quick glance before they made their charge.

 

“What did you do with Avery, you bastard?!” Delirious cried when The Wraith had noticed them. “She’s still just a kid!” Delirious got closer than Jack thought that either of them would have gotten and drove the crobar through the monster’s right arm.

 

The beast let out a roar of pain and swung its newly injured arm at Delirious in fury, sending him flying. Jack charged at the killer and swung his pipe at its head. Enraged, The Wraith raised its weapon and cut Jack’s in half. Jack took the chance and seized the spine of the monster’s deadly staff. He yanked it from The Wraith’s hand and swung it as hard as he could at The Wraith’s head. There was a loud  _ thunk  _ when it came into contact with the monster’s skull. The killer fell forward to the ground, unconscious. Feeling triumphant, Jack hurried over to where Delirious had landed.

 

“H2O, are you okay?” Jack asked.

 

Delirious groaned as Jack sat him up, but he nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Delirious looked around. “Did you get it?” he asked, looking at Jack.

 

“Yeah, the monster is down for the count,” Jack said.

 

Delirious got up to have a look for himself.

 

“Ha ha!” he cried when he saw the unconscious form of The Wraith. “That son of a bitch totally got what he deserved!” Delirious looked at The Wraith for a moment or two more before heading back towards Jack.

 

“Come on,” he said, walking past him and waving a hand for Jack to follow. “I think I saw another generator over here somewhere.”

  
Jack looked back at The Wraith before following after Delirious. They were quickly able to repair the generator before continuing their search for Avery.


	9. Afraid To Be Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week is the last week of publishing for this part! :D
> 
> How exciting is that?! Not very, considering I won't be posting again until January. More details will be stated in the last chapter! =3

Mark didn’t know how long it had been since Jack had left, but he was growing nervous as time passed. He wasn’t sure if it was from just being totally alone or his worry about everyone else. Mark at least knew that he wasn’t seeing things when two new tally marks found their way onto the sheet with the number ten. Hopefully, Jack had caught up to Delirious and the two of them had repaired both generators together.

 

Still, even if the two of them were working together to find Avery, Mark was still getting antsy. When he finally couldn’t stand waiting any longer, Mark lifted himself to his feet. He hissed with pain after putting some weight on his right leg, but found that it was at least able to support him just a little bit now. Limping over to the trapdoor, Mark slowly made his way down the ladder and outside the tree. He walked with something of a weird gallop, almost hopping on his left leg. Even though the pain was quickly coming back to him, Mark kept on going. He needed to find Jack and Delirious.

 

Jack and Delirious, unaware that Mark was no longer at the hideout, were still looking for Avery. They had left the Wretched Shop forest behind them and were heading back towards the explosion sight when Delirious suddenly stopped.

 

“What is it?” Jack asked.

 

“A hook,” Delirious pointed towards a hill. There was a hook standing at the top of it.

 

“All right, let’s go.” Jack said, heading for it first.

 

Delirious followed Jack and was first up the hill. As he tried to figure out a way to reach it, Jack kept watch over the surrounding area. Delirious tried jumping and just gave himself a few splinters.

 

“Ouch!” he growled, shaking his hands. He started picking the splinters out of his hands. “Why aren’t you doing this?” Delirious asked Jack. “You’re taller than me.”

 

“I’m not  _ that  _ much taller than you.” Jack said. To prove his point, he stepped in next to Delirious. “See? Look, we’re practically the same height anyway.” Jack went back to scanning the area.

 

“Yeah, whatever.” Delirious grumbled.

 

He unzipped his sweater and pulling it off, Delirious threw his sweater around the post and started using it to climb. He was soon laying on his stomach across the top and was trying to remember how Avery had taken the other hooks down.

 

“How did Avery do this?” he asked Jack.

 

“There should be a clip,” Jack said. “You have to-” he stopped when he turned around. “Holy shit! How did ya get up there?!” he gasped.

 

“I used my hoodie.” Delirious explained. He found the clip Jack had mentioned and played with it until it came off.

 

Jack was still staring up at Delirious, who was now in just a gray T-shirt and his black jeans and white sneakers (which were now a little tan). The blue sweater now lay on the ground, and Jack picked it up.

 

“You want this back?” he asked.

 

“Yes,” Delirious answered, ripping the hook’s binding off. He took his sweater from Jack and put it back on, but left it unzipped this time. Delirious stood up on the stand and went to jump down.

 

Jack had looked away to scan the area once more. Delirious jumped off the end of the stand, but the post was closer to the edge than he had thought, and his landing was sloppy.

 

“GAH!” Delirious cried as he tripped over the edge, landing on the ground below with a  _ thwump. _

 

Jack had turned at Delirious’ cry and bent down at the edge.

 

“Are you okay?” he asked.

  
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Delirious said, standing up again and brushing himself off. He looked up at Jack and his eyes widened. “SHIT! JACK, RUN!” he shouted.

 

Jack quickly rolled over and saw The Wraith, who was obviously no longer unconscious. Jack rolled out from underneath the monster as it slammed the skull end of his staff on the ground where, just a second earlier, Jack’s head had been. Jack ran down the hill and charged off towards the Blood Lodge. One quick glance behind him told Jack that Delirious had run in the other direction, and that the killer had gone after him.

 

Jack didn’t stop running until reached the Blood Lodge, though. This was now just fantastic. He and Delirious had gone looking for Avery, who was still missing, and now the both of them were separated.

 

At least there was still one good thing for Jack, and that was that he’d found a generator.

 

Or, actually remembered that there was one in the Blood Lodge.

 

Heading inside, Jack made his way up the collapsed floor boards and onto the deck. Sure enough, there was a generator still untouched. Jack immediately jumped into fixing it, though he kept looking around for the killer, Avery, or Delirious. After a while, Jack saw movement on the ground below and thought it was The Wraith, though it had a slight limp. Leaving the generator, Jack ran to the closet inside the house and hid himself inside it.

 

The limping figure Jack had seen and thought was the monster was actually Mark. Now standing just outside the Blood Lodge, he could hear a generator rumbling. It sounded like it was coming from above him, so Mark looked up. He could see a bit of the generator, and there was no light on above it. Getting excited, Mark went inside the Blood Lodge and crawled up the collapsed floor. When he reached the generator, he found that no one was by it. Puzzled, Mark looked around for someone.

 

When he didn’t see anyone, he opened his mouth to call out, but his voice was replaced with a clanging bell. Mark looked around desperately around and spotted the closet and limped over.

 

“What the-?!” someone exclaimed, startling Mark. “Mark!?” Jack gasped, confused.

 

“Oh, sorry, Jack!” Mark said, closing the closet door again. He went instead to hide behind the generator.

 

Jack, shocked by Mark’s sudden appearance, was about to leave the closet to ask what he was doing there when he too heard the clanging bell and had to stay put. His breath caught in his throat, but Jack pushed the urge to cough down, at least until it had fallen quiet again.

 

“Jack, you can come out. It’s gone,” Mark said from outside the closet.

 

Jack opened the door and stepped out, closing it again behind him. He went straight over to Mark, who looked relieved to see him.

 

“What are ya doing here, Mark?!” Jack demanded. “And how did you even get this far on that leg?” he asked.

 

“I-” Mark paused. He couldn’t seem to think of a response.

 

“It’s bad enough tha we’re in this mess, and now that yer hurt. . .” Jack’s voice trailed.

 

They were both quiet for a moment before, “I was looking for you and Delirious,” Mark said finally. “Did you ever catch up to him?” he asked.

 

Jack sighed. “I did, but the two of us got separated not too long ago,” he explained.

 

“Oh,” Mark looked around awkwardly. “Did you guys find anything?” he asked.

 

Jack knew Mark was talking about Avery. “Not exactly,” he said. “But I do believe that she might actually still be alive.”

 

“That’s good,” Mark said.

 

Jack thought for a moment. “Why were you looking for us?” he asked finally. “We would have come back, with or without Avery, y’know.” he said.

 

“I know that I was safer back at the treehouse, but I was starting to feel uncomfortable, being alone,” Mark said.

 

“I thought ya said you would be fine on yer own?” Jack pointed out.

 

“I know what I said, but I guess that I was wrong.” Mark sighed. “It’s really just the feel of this place that made me leave,” he said.

 

“Oh, then I understand.” Jack admitted honestly. He’d been growing uncomfortable from being alone, himself, after getting separated from Delirious.

 

Jack seemed to automatically move back to fixing the generator, and Mark helped out. Jack accidentally broke something, causing a small explosion, but he stayed to fix it, since Mark didn’t move. Both Jack and Mark were tense after that, though, and when the light finally came on, the fled the scene as fast as Mark could go.

 

Once at a fairly safe distance, Jack stopped to look at Mark’s leg.

 

“How much does it hurt?” he asked after checking that the bandages weren’t any bloodier than before.

 

“Not too much.” Mark answered. “As long as I keep most of my weight off it as much as possible, I can at least walk,” he said.

 

“Okay, let’s head back,” Jack said, and he helped Mark stand up again.

 

After a few yards of travel, Jack offered to help support Mark the rest of the way.

 

“No, I think I’ve got it.” Mark claimed.

 

“Okay,” Jack said, though he wasn’t sure Mark was being completely truthful.

 

Jack was relieved when the giant oak tree came into sight, and was just glad that he and Mark had made it back safely.

 

“Jack! Mark! Up here!” Jack and Mark looked up to see a spot of blue among all the green leaves and brown branches.

 

“H2O!” Jack cried, thankful that Delirious too was okay. “Glad you’re alright!” he called up to him.

 

Delirious moved down the branch and closer to the treehouse. “Mark, why did you leave?” he called down.

 

“Already discussed that with Jack!” Mark called back.

 

Jack went around the tree and ducked through the opening into the ladder shaft. He climbed up the ladder, looking down once to check that Mark was behind him. Jack reached the top and poked his head through the trapdoor. He was surprised by who he found in the treehouse with Delirious.

 

“Avery!”


	10. Something Unknown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> H2OVanoss fan? Check out my channel on YouTube! You can find the link on my Twitter account.
> 
>  
> 
> https://twitter.com/TigerTabbyKatt

Jack moved out of the way in time and made a run for it. Delirious was about to follow him when The Wraith landed in front him after jumping off the hill. With a yelp, Delirious bolted in the opposite direction, weaving through the trash piles to avoid getting hit by the long, sharp blade embedded into The Wraith’s weapon. When Delirious had run for a while, he looked behind him and stopped. The Wraith was no longer following him (hopefully), but now Delirious was alone. He’d been separated from Jack, and Avery was still missing.

 

But now at least Delirious could catch his breath. He looked around him to see where he was, and realized that it was The Killer Shack that always held the basement. Or as Delirious had once called it, the “Sex Dungeon”. Quietly, Delirious made his way around the shack until he found the doorway and went inside. The one room was empty, with only the staircase descending into the basement to fill it. The basement was emitting a strange, orange glow. Delirious looked around quickly before heading down the stairs. A few of the steps creaked when Delirious put his foot on them, and then he heard quick moving footsteps and stopped.

 

He carefully made the rest of the way down and scanned the basement. All he saw were the four hooks that were built into the central pillar. There was no removing these. Delirious went past the hooks to the cubby area behind the wall in front of the stairs and found a box. And it was already opened. Although the stairs gave a weird orange glow, down here, it was more of a blue colored atmosphere, and Delirious could see a small spot of red on the floor in front of the chest. Blood.

 

Suddenly, there was a sneeze. It was cut short as it was stopped abruptly, but Delirious had a feeling he knew where and who it had come from. There were four total closets in the entire basement, but Delirious focused more on the one all the way across the room. He walked over to it slowly and stopped just outside it. He stood to one side and put his ear to the wood and gave a small knock.

 

“Avery? Are you in there?” he asked.

 

The closet’s doors were swung open and Avery stepped out. She looked around for a moment before she saw Delirious and looked greatly relieved.

 

“Delirious!” she gasped, throwing her arms around Delirious unexpectedly.

 

“Whoa.” Delirious was a little startled, and Avery quickly pushed herself away.

 

“Oh, sorry!” she said quickly. “I just. . . it’s. . . ugh!” Avery collected herself quickly. “I’m just glad that it wasn’t the killer,” she managed at last.

 

“Well, I’m just glad to see that you’re still alive,” Delirious said. “But, just how are you alive?” he asked.

 

“I’ll explain everything, but we have to get back to the treehouse.” Avery was already heading for the exit before she even finished speaking, and Delirious had to follow after her.

 

It was suddenly cooler above ground, and Delirious realized that it was actually hotter in the basement. Avery was walking really quickly, and Delirious was finding it difficult to keep up, even though Avery was several inches shorter than him. He could walk faster, but then Avery was almost running.

 

“Whoa, Avery, could you slow down a little?” Delirious panted.

 

Avery was now actually running, and she didn’t respond to Delirious’ request. She finally stopped when they reached the oak tree, though. Delirious, who had been running pretty fast after Avery, skidded to a halt, but his foot tripped over something and he fell forward. Standing up again (and straightening his mask), Delirious looked at Avery, who was gazing upward at the treehouse.

 

“Is anyone else here?” she looked up at Delirious for her answer.

 

“Well, Mark should be here, still, and Jack may have come back already.” Delirious said.

 

Before Avery could race to the ladder, Delirious made to be the first to climb it. He was startled when he found the treehouse empty.

 

“That’s odd,” he said, climbing out of the trapdoor.

 

“What is it?” Avery asked.

 

“Mark should still be here. I would think that he can’t even stand up.” Delirious mumbled.

 

Avery came up behind Delirious and looked around. She went to the window to scan the junkyard for Mark and Jack. That’s when Delirious saw the blood. A red spot stained the back of Avery’s shirt, and the size of it made Delirious a bit worried.

 

“What happened to your back?” he asked, concerned.

 

Avery turned to look at him. “What?” she sounded confused.

 

“You’re bleeding.” Delirious pointed out, and Avery suddenly realized what he was talking about.

 

“Oh, that. . . It happened during the explosion, but it’s no big deal or something worth making a fuss about,” Avery said.

 

Delirious detected a bit of pain in Avery’s voice, and though she couldn’t see it, one of his eyebrows was raised. “It really doesn’t seem that way to me,” he stated.

 

“I’m fine!” Avery protested. “Really.”

 

Delirious looked at her. “It doesn’t sound or look that way, Avery,” he said softly.

 

Avery sighed. She sat on the floor and crossed her arms over the window sill and rested her head on them. “It does actually still hurt a little,” she admitted quietly.

 

Delirious moved over to Avery. He didn’t have to lift her shirt too high, since the injury was pretty low down her back, but it didn’t look too great. The cut was shallow, but it was wide, and really bloody. Some of the skin around it was even bruised. Delirious brought the first-aid kit over from the other wall, and he also took his mask off so that he could see what he was doing better. Avery saw the mask, now on the floor, but she didn’t look all the way around at Jonathan’s face. She knew how he preferred to keep that a secret.

 

When Delirious was finished, he put his mask back on. “Were you hurt anywhere else?” he asked Avery as she scooted away from the window.

 

“Nothing other than a few bruises,” Avery said.

 

“I’ll be on the roof if you need anything,” Delirious said. “I’m gonna to keep an eye out for Mark and Jack.” Delirious stood up again.

 

Avery nodded and he climbed out onto the roof. Delirious positioned himself at the highest point that was sturdy enough to hold his weight and looked out over what he could see of Autohaven Wrecker’s. Something that got his attention was a distant explosion from the Blood Lodge. It wasn’t currently concerning, since it was really small, and Delirious guessed that it had come from a generator. A moment later, he saw a light come on.

 

“Hey, Avery?” Delirious called down.

 

“What?” came Avery’s voice.

 

“How many generators do we have so far?” Delirious asked.

 

“Uh, well,” Avery took a moment. “It looks like you guys hit three more after the explosion. We’ve got eight tally marks here,” she said.

 

There were the two that Delirious and Jack had gotten, and that was seven, so the light came from the eighth. Delirious strained his eyes in the direction of the Blood Lodge, hoping to spot Jack or Mark coming back here. When he finally saw movement, he saw them both.

 

“Jack! Mark! Up here!” he called down to them, waving his arm. Mark and Jack looked up.

 

“H2O! Glad you’re alright!” Jack called up to him.

 

_ Why does he keep calling me ‘H2O’ ?  _ Delirious wondered. He shifted his position until he could climb down the branches and head down into the treehouse again. He stopped at the hatch. “Mark, why did you leave?” he asked loudly.

 

“Already discussed that with Jack!” Mark replied.

 

Delirious watched Jack and Mark disappear behind the tree before heading back inside. When Jack appeared in the trapdoor, his eyes widened.

 

“Avery!” he gasped climbing out the rest of the way so that Mark could enter as well.

 

Avery gave Jack a nervous smile.

 

“What happened to you after the explosion? And how did you even get out of it alive?” Mark asked, leaning against the wall and sliding to the floor with his right leg stretched out in front of him.

 

“Before I tell you anything,” Avery began. “I have to warn you; you won’t like what I’ve discovered.”


	11. Avery's Discovery

“Get Mark back to the hideout!” Avery yelled behind her at Jack and Delirious and then took off in the opposite direction.

 

“What are you going to do?!” she heard Delirious call after her.

 

But she couldn’t answer, because it would likely slow her down. Avery wanted to get as far away from the others as fast as possible, giving them time to get Mark to safety. That’s what mattered right now, nothing else. As long as Mark was taken back to the hideout and treated, he should be alright. Hopefully Jack or Delirious would soon find a first-aid kit. Avery ran past the Blood Lodge and beyond, heading into the area of the Wrecker’s Yard. The Killer’s Shack was at the center of it, and she knew that if she reached it, she might find something useful.

 

There was a roar behind her, and Avery then realized just how close The Wraith had gotten. There was a gray truck just ahead of her, and for some reason it was somehow running. Avery circled around it, and what she wasn’t expecting was for The Wraith to take the sharpened end of the spine on its weapon and stab it into the truck’s hood.

* * *

When Avery opened her eyes again, the first thing she felt was pain. It was all over her, but the majority of it was in her lower back. Barely moving, Avery managed to get one of her hands on that one spot, and gasped when she felt something wet. Blood. She was bleeding. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was a flash of bright orange and red light and then everything went black. Wait, almost everything was still black, or more like dark gray, and then Avery realized that it was smoke. The truck must have exploded when The Wraith had stabbed the engine.

 

With a few small yelps of pain, Avery managed to get to her feet once more, but it was difficult to stay on them, since her legs felt like jelly. Her head was now starting to hurt, and Avery was hardly able to walk. She looked around and saw smoldering fires burning themselves out, and there was a small crater several yards away from where she had landed. It was where the truck had been previously. The Wraith was nowhere around, and Avery guessed that he had either been sent flying and or had even been destroyed.

 

_ Poor guy. . .  _ she thought suddenly. For Avery, even though The Wraith was trying to kill her, she still felt bad for him. His entire back story was something some people might find slightly dramatic.

 

The Wraith, or before he’d become the monster he was now, Philip Ojomo, had apparently come to this “country” with nothing but hope for a new start. He’d happily accepted a job offer for Autohaven Wrecker’s where crushing cars was what he did best. But Philip Ojomo had been totally unaware to what his boss had been doing, which was putting innocent people in the trunks of the cars that he was putting through the crusher. It hadn’t been until he saw blood coming from one of the trunks that Ojomo had discovered what his boss was doing. Apparently he’d completely snapped after his boss had finished off the poor guy and stuffed  _ him  _ into the crusher, ripping his head and spine out afterward, which he now used as his weapon. Obviously he had found a blade to lodge into the jaw for better use at some point, though.

 

According to the game’s website, after killing his boss, Philip Ojoma had left and was never seen again by anyone. Except for the unlucky souls that happened to wander into the junkyard.

 

Avery moved away from the site and stopped finally in a small patch of trees. She sat there for a couple of moments with her eyes closed before opening them again and looking around a little. To Avery’s confusion, she saw something white and gray, almost like metal. Standing up for a closer look, Avery gasped.

 

It was a gate.

 

Avery ran up to it and tried pulling on the lever. It was stuck, and even if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter; the box wasn’t getting enough power. Only half the number of needed generators were currently working, so of course there wouldn’t be enough power to open the gate that Avery now stood in front of. Sighing, Avery turned away from the gate and started walking towards the Blood Lodge, the top of which was just barely visible in the distance. She couldn’t go back to the treehouse, she felt that this was her chance to find the Journal. In truth, Avery actually did want to go back to the treehouse and the others, but what of the Journal? They all knew that the Journal held the answers to everything they needed and possibly wanted to know, and finding it would hopefully make things easier for them all.

 

As Avery wound her way through the high walls of scrap metal and other broken vehicles, she started to recognize which area she was on. This was Wrecker’s Yard, which always contained the Killer’s Shack. Inside the shack, there was  _ always  _ the basement. The lair. Getting excited, Avery started looking around for a high vantage point. She found it in a dead birch tree, the branches of which were formed just right for climbing. Once Avery had gone as high as she dared, she gazed out over the Yard for any sign of the Shack. She knew she would recognize it once she saw it. But before Avery found anything of the dangerous building, she heard movement.

 

Avery froze, hoping that it wasn’t Philip. All she needed now was to deal with The Wraith while stuck in a tree. The thing wouldn’t leave her alone unless someone else came by.

 

Or it knew how to climb trees itself. That wouldn’t be good.

 

Heart beginning to beat quickly in her chest, Avery slowly looked around, and was thankful when she finally saw the Shack far off in the distance, just barely visible through a patch of tall trees. Climbing down from the tree that she was in and landing on the ground once more, Avery started off in that direction. She heard the movement again, and then heard voices. Avery ducked out of sight and cautiously peeked out at the owners of the voices. It was Jack and Delirious.

 

“You sure?” Delirious was saying.

 

“Yeah, I can still see it ahead,” Jack said.

 

Curious, Avery looked at where they were heading, and caught the slightest glimpse of something transparent. The Wraith.

 

“Come on! It’s started running!” Jack whispered quickly, and then took off, with Delirious behind him.

 

_ What are they doing?  _ Avery wondered. Were they hunting The Wraith? That was crazy! They would get themselves killed if not hurt!

 

Shaking her head and ignoring the urge to run after them, Avery turned away and headed off in the direction of the Killer’s Shack. The sooner she got there, the better. Avery walked for a while, climbing to higher points when she could to make sure that she was still going in the right direction, and then finally reached the Shack. Sighing, Avery climbed in through the one window and gazed down the stairs, which emitted an interesting orange colored glow. Descending the stairs, the glow disappeared and was replaced with a blue-gray haze. It was hot in the basement, but Avery didn’t care. She searched the whole place, and found a box in the small nook hidden behind a wall in front of the stairs.

 

Avery bent down in front of the box and threw it open. She rummaged through the contents (old sheets, broken hooks, a few blood covered bones, and a cracked piece of glass that Avery cut her arm on), and thought that it was all for not until she spotted something oddly familiar.

 

It was her  _ diary _ .

 

The pink book was lying at the bottom of the box in one corner, and it looked as though it had been there for a while. Confused, Avery picked it up and turned it over. She opened it to a random page and was startled. The writing wasn’t hers. The penmanship was not only different, but Avery had never written anything like this before.

 

She had found the Journal, but why did it look like her diary? Avery turned to the first page and began reading after a quick glance behind her.

 

_ Hello, player. I see that you have found the Journal. Good for you! _

_ As you hopefully have already been told, this book contains the answers to your questions about your current situation. This is very much true, for on the next page is the reason why you’re here. _

 

Avery felt her breath catch in her throat as she turned the page.

 

_ Ah, I see that you have decided to keep reading. Smart decision, player. _

_ As for the reason you are here, that it something that you may not want to know, for it is disturbing. I do not know which of the four is currently reading this, but one of you is the cause for this mess. She wanted to meet the three people she idolized most so desperately that she was willing to put them and herself in danger to do so. Yes, Avery is the reason that you are all here. If you feel that she can no longer be trusted, you are wrong. She got you all into this mess, and she knows that she can get you all out of it as well. I’m sure that she has already said that she knows a lot about this game. _

_ Avery, if you are the one reading this right now, you must be so confused. Well, let me explain. You may have made your most recent diary entry unclear, therefore, making the book believe that what you meant was that the only way to meet Jacksepticeye, Markiplier, and H2ODelirious was inside this particular game. You may want to start wording you paragraphs differently, my dear. _

_ However, you did get the book without heeding the warning of the old bookstore owner, and are now only experiencing this because for the first time, you wrote in that diary a wish. The book was created to grant whoever was to write in it the wish that they wrote down. Unless properly worded and extremely specific, that wish would go bad somewhere. Writing with no flaws would always be the best option. _

 

Avery stopped reading for a moment, and then turned to the next page, though she was afraid of what she might find written on the pages.

 

_ Now for the question of how this is happening. _

_ The four of you are probably wondering what is going on in the real world, right? Well, not to worry, none of you will be reported missing, for your actual bodies were left behind in the real world, each in a coma. Currently in the game are copies, or for more better terms, your souls. It sounds very freaky, I know, but there was no other way. _

_ What the first note you read said about the physics here being different from what they are in the actual game is something you should really be worried about. Any injury you sustain here, will be inflicted on your real body in the real world. Which also means that if you die here, you’re actually dead. Game over. _

_ The note also stated that you would have to go up against the four killers on the four maps. Currently, you are facing the Wraith on Autohaven Wrecker’s. The next one will be the Hillbilly on Coldwind Farm, leaving the Trapper with the Macmillan Estate. Finally, it will be the Nurse at the Crotus Prenn Asylum. The reason for all these specifics has to do with the backstories for each character and location. _

_ You already know that in order to get home, you must beat the game, and you already know how to do that; repair a certain number of generators on each map and move on. _

_ Something else that is rather important for you all to know, is that time is passing differently here than it is in the real world. Here, it is much slower, while in the real world, it goes normally, or as you might now see it, quicker. _

 

Avery couldn’t bear to read any more, but she kept going, there was still so much more that she needed to find out. Like, what about resources like food and water? She discovered that the game’s toolboxes used for sabotaging the hooks had been replaced with these very things. Great, more things to find. Avery  reread what was written in the Journal a few more times, trying to remember everything written on the pages, which was a good thing, because when she finally closed the book again, it vanished.

 

“Holy shit, this is way more serious than I had thought. . .” she murmured quietly.

 

Suddenly, Avery heard a creak. It had come from the stairs, which meant that someone was coming down. It could be The Wraith! Avery stood up quickly and ran across the basement as quietly as she could and hid inside the closet against the wall. She kept her breath and heart as still as possible, hoping that the monster wouldn’t look in that particular closet. Several moments passed, and then Avery heard almost silent footsteps just outside the closet. To her surprise, there was a knock.

 

“Avery? Are you in there?” a most familiar voice spoke. It was Delirious.

 

Avery let herself breathe again and pushed the closet’s doors open.

* * *

“Then Delirious and I came back here and he patched me up.” Avery said, gently rubbing the bandage on her arm where she’d been cut by the glass.

 

“Why is it that you’re the reason we’re here?” Mark asked.

 

“I would like to know that, too.” Jack said.

 

Avery shrugged. “Despite what the Journal had said about my diary being magic, I still want to know that answer as much as you do. Especially as to how that book is enchanted. I didn’t think that magic was real,” she said.

 

The four of them were quiet for a moment, before Delirious spoke up. “So, we’ve only got two generators left to repair?” he looked at the note where there were eight tally marks drawn under the large ten.

 

“Yeah, I guess we do.” Avery said.

 

“Let’s go and get them fixed, then!” Mark said, beginning to stand up.

 

“Whoa! You’re not going anywhere, Mark,” Jack said, putting his hand out to stop Mark from getting up.

 

Mark looked at him. “I’m fine, Jack. I can walk,” he stated defiantly. “And besides, I’m sure that once the last generator is fixed, we’re all going to get out of here right away,” he added.

 

Jack looked to Avery, who shrugged.

 

“Well, we still don’t know where the last two generators are,” Delirious began. “and there’s a chance that something could happen while we’re still looking for them and we’ll end up coming back here anyway.”

 

“That’s true.” Avery nodded. “But we don’t need to worry about that for right now, because I have a feeling that I know where the last two generators are.”

 

Mark, Jack, and Delirious all stared at her. Avery shifted her gaze between them.

 

“We haven’t hit two parts, I’m sure. There’s a high chance that there is another generator on the other side of Asarov’s Resting Place, and then one somewhere by the Killer’s Shack.” she explained.

 

“Oh, so all we have ta do is walk across the entire map?” Jack groaned.

 

“Basically, but the sooner we have them done-” Avery began.

 

“The sooner tha we’re out.” Jack finished her sentence.

 

“Exactly,” Avery said. “And we’re taking Mark with us,” she added.

 

Mark’s expression brightened.

 

“What?!” Jack exclaimed.

 

“Well, if he says he can walk, why leave him here?” Delirious said, just guessing Avery’s thoughts. She nodded, saying that was exactly what she thinking.

 

Jack looked at the two of them, and then back at Mark. He sighed. “All right, fine, but we’ll take a break or two, right?” he asked.

 

“Jack, I’ll be fine.” Mark stated.

 

“Unless Mark says that he wants to stop and rest, then we’re not stopping.” Avery crossed her arms.

 

Jack lowered his gaze. “Okay, fine,” he said.

 

A minute later, Mark, Jack, Avery, and Delirious were headed back down the ladder to look for the last generators.


	12. Out Of Hell Number One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this is the last chapter for Part 1!  
> To let you guys know, I'm going to start posting Part 2 on January 3rd.

“All right, which generator are we going to hit first?” Delirious asked once he came out of the tree, carrying the first-aid kit with him, just in case.

 

“Well, I found a gate over by the Killer’s Shack, so let’s try for the one on Asarov’s Resting Place first.” Avery said.

 

“You found a gate?!” Jack exclaimed.

 

“Yes,” Avery said.

 

“Great! A faster escape!” Jack said, a little too hopefully.

 

The group followed Avery away from the large oak tree, heading towards the Wretched Shop forest. Mark’s limping wasn’t so bad now, but he was still moving slowly. When they finally reached the edge of the thick birch forest, they checked that they were ready to keep going before entering the tree line.

 

A gray-brown mist had formed inside the forest, and it gave the place more of an eerie feeling than before. Still, the group soldiered on, making their way around the large trees, small trash piles, and a few rocks as well. At last, they came to the edge of the forest and went in the one direction that they hadn’t yet. They came to the corridor between the sides, in which high brick walls had been built. A little while later, Mark spotted the generator first, near the other side of the area.

 

Getting down on each available side, Mark, Jack, and Delirious got to work repairing it while Avery looked around for something either useful or for The Wraith. The light came on almost fifteen minutes later, and the group made off across the map once more. They passed a few hooks on the way, and tore them down before moving on. It took a long time, and Delirious and Jack recognized the hill where they had been separated earlier, and then the group saw at last the Blood Lodge, giving the sign that they were closing in on the final generator.

 

“We should almost be there. It’s just the matter of locating the last generator that may prove a problem. The Wrecker’s Yard is like a maze of trash, cars, and patches of trees,” Avery said.

 

“Fantastic,” Jack said sarcastically, to which Avery rolled her eyes.

 

“Guys, can we stop for a moment?” Mark said after a while, panting lightly. 

 

Jack looked back at him with worry. Delirious and Avery halted as Mark lowered himself to the ground. Jack got down next to him while Delirious watched with concern. Avery was looking around the area, straining her ears for any sound that might give away The Wraith’s approach. Instead of The Wraith, she saw something strangely shaped, and then realized that it was the last generator.

 

“There it is!” she cried out.

 

Delirious followed her gaze. He too saw the generator, and looked back at Mark and Jack. “Are you alright?” he asked.

 

Mark nodded. “Yeah, just a little tired, is all.” But he made himself stand again. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said.

 

Jack supported Mark a little as they walked over to the final machine. He, Delirious, and Avery took care of repairing it while Mark rested a little more. Avery stopped suddenly, and even over the sounds the generator was beginning to make she could hear it clearly as though it were right next to her ear.

 

_ Clang clang clang _

 

“Stop,” she said, looking around.

 

Jack and Delirious paused and looked around. Mark was getting up again, so that he would be ready to run when needed. They all carefully scanned the area, looking for movement. Then Avery saw it.

 

“Run!” she cried when it came towards them.

 

Delirious went with Avery, while Jack took Mark and ran. Avery and Delirious stopped quickly when The Wraith chose to go after Mark and Jack. The monster closed the distance between them quickly and swung its staff.

 

“Jack!” Mark cried as Jack jumped between him and the killer, taking the hit.

 

Avery and Delirious ran over quickly as Mark tried to stop The Wraith from picking Jack up. But the monster pushed him aside and threw Jack over its shoulder. Delirious and Avery reached Mark as he got back onto his feet and started after The Wraith. This had turned into a rescue mission, and Mark knew what to do.

 

“What the-!” Delirious was a little startled when Mark threw his hand into his sweater pocket and pulled out the flashlight. Delirious looked as though he had forgotten himself that it was there.

 

Mark, despite the terrible pain it gave him, ran after The Wraith with Avery and Delirious behind him. Mark circled around The Wraith and turned the flashlight on. He aimed it in The Wraith’s face, and the monster gave a roar of surprise and dropped Jack to shield its eyes from the sudden blinding light. Jack scrambled to his feet and bolted. He was so terrified that he didn’t even realize where he was going. He just kept running.

 

When Jack finally came to a stop, he realized immediately that he’d left the others behind. He looked around, panting, for someone or something. Jack’s heart was pounding loudly in his chest as he started walking in the direction that he thought the generator was. He didn’t think he was going in the wrong direction until he came to a place he recognized.

 

The explosion sight. Excited, Jack kept going and came upon what he’d been hoping he would; the gate.

 

Back with Delirious, Avery, and Mark, they had managed to lose The Wraith and were once again back at the generator, though they were worried for Jack, who hadn’t come back to help. Finally, the light came on and then Avery led Mark and Delirious in the direction of the gate she’d found. They passed the Killer’s Shack, and then reached the place where the truck had exploded.

 

“Where’s Jack?” Mark asked nervously.

 

“It looks like he’s already at the gate.” Avery said, pointing.

 

Mark and Delirious followed her gaze. The gate was now visible, and it was already open. And Jack was waiting for them outside it.

 

“Jack!” Mark gasped, relieved.

 

“Got it all ready for us,” Jack said.

 

“I can see that,” Avery said, examining the open gateway.

 

“Are we ready?” Delirious asked.

 

“For another nightmare?” Jack teased. “Sure.”

 

Then Avery, Mark, Jack, and Delirious went through the gate, not looking behind them as they finally left Autohaven Wrecker’s.


End file.
